Bacteriophages: biology and history

Bacteriophages were initially considered to offer the key to the control of bacterial infections; early studies, however, proved largely unsuccessful. In the 1940s and 1950s, pioneering studies into the structure and physiolo gy of host/phage interactions laid the basis for the development of molecul ar biology and a spectrum of new biotechnologically-based industries. Bacte riophages able to infect most procaryotic groups of organisms have been iso lated, and are readily isolated from soil, water, and sewage and most envir onments colonised by bacteria. Ecologically, phages are as varied and as ve rsatile as their hosts with some able to survive extremes of temperature (u p to 95 degreesC) and extremes of pH as low as pH 1. (C) 2001 Society of Ch emical Industry.