title: Bacteriophages and its applications: an overview.
abstract: Bacteriophages (or phages), the most abundant viral entity of the planet, are omni-present in all the ecosystems. On the basis of their unique characteristics and anti-bacterial property, phages are being freshly evaluated taxonomically. Phages replicate inside the host either by lytic or lysogenic mode after infecting and using the cellular machinery of a bacterium. Since their discovery by Twort and d'Herelle in the early 1900s, phage became an important agent for combating pathogenic bacteria in clinical treatments and its related research gained momentum. However, due to recent emergence of bacterial resistance on antibiotics, applications of phage (phage therapy) become an inevitable option of research. Phage particles become popular as a biotechnological tool and treatment of pathogenic bacteria in a range of applied areas. However, there are few concerns over the application of phage-based solutions. This review deals with the updated phage taxonomy (ICTV 2015 Release and subsequent revision) and phage biology and the recent development of its application in the areas of biotechnology, biosensor, therapeutic medicine, food preservation, aquaculture diseases, pollution remediation, and wastewater treatment and issues related with limitations of phage-based remedy.
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India.
authors.forename: Sonika
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India. drlsoumya@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Soumya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India.
authors.forename: Sibnarayan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India.|School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA.
authors.forename: Rishika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India.
authors.forename: Dharmendra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dubey
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India.
authors.forename: Rajesh Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam, 784001, India.
authors.forename: Mohan G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Vairale
mesh_terms: D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000628:therapy*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology*; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D000071059:Phage Therapy / Q000379:methods*