Although phages are highly variable in sequence and lack a common marker, is there, anyway, a kind of pan-PCR to quantify the total phage load in a sample? Perhaps a common integrase? A family-level PCR?
Alternatively, what is the method of choice for phage quantification apart from the plaque assay?
Thank you
No. There are no common sequences found in all (or even most phages). There might be some family level common sequences for a specific family of closely related phages but even that would be difficult. Note that even for a specific single host bacterium there might be hundreds of unrelated phages.
I have found this paper FEMS Microbiol Lett
. 2011 Sep;322(1):90-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2011.02342.x.
that describes a simple set of primers to fingerprint at least 26 phages...
Also BioTechniques 2003;35(2):368 reports a primer set for detection of lambda phage...
Luigi Marongiu it is true that you can generate primer pairs for specific phage families given they have reasonable sequence identify. But there are no primers that work across all phage given the thousands and thousands of different phages. Even if you merely take coli-phage, you can't find a primer pair that would work on T4, T7 and lambda, much less phiX or M13 or Mu.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Agriculture
- Horticulture
- Seeds