TY - JOUR
T1 - Bacteriophage ecology in environmental biotechnology processes
AU - Shapiro, Orr H.
AU - Kushmaro, Ariel
N1 - Funding Information:
Y Lichtenfeld and R Jeger assisted with electron microscopy procedures. O Segev and V Shapiro provided useful comments. This work was supported by research funds from the BMBF-MOST Cooperation in Water Technologies Grants WT-501 and WT-901 and a Levi-Eshkol scholarship to OHS from the Israeli Ministry of Science.
PY - 2011/6/1
Y1 - 2011/6/1
N2 - Heterotrophic bacteria are an integral part of any environmental biotechnology process (EBP). Therefore, factors controlling bacterial abundance, activity, and community composition are central to the understanding of such processes. Among these factors, top-down control by bacteriophage predation has so far received very limited attention. With over 108 particles per ml, phage appear to be the most numerous biological entities in EBP. Phage populations in EBP appear to be highly dynamic and to correlate with the population dynamics of their hosts and genomic evidence suggests bacteria evolve to avoid phage predation. Clearly, there is much to learn regarding bacteriophage in EBP before we can truly understand the microbial ecology of these globally important systems.
AB - Heterotrophic bacteria are an integral part of any environmental biotechnology process (EBP). Therefore, factors controlling bacterial abundance, activity, and community composition are central to the understanding of such processes. Among these factors, top-down control by bacteriophage predation has so far received very limited attention. With over 108 particles per ml, phage appear to be the most numerous biological entities in EBP. Phage populations in EBP appear to be highly dynamic and to correlate with the population dynamics of their hosts and genomic evidence suggests bacteria evolve to avoid phage predation. Clearly, there is much to learn regarding bacteriophage in EBP before we can truly understand the microbial ecology of these globally important systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79958009261&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.copbio.2011.01.012
DO - 10.1016/j.copbio.2011.01.012
M3 - Review article
C2 - 21354780
AN - SCOPUS:79958009261
VL - 22
SP - 449
EP - 455
JO - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
JF - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
SN - 0958-1669
IS - 3
ER -