Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that attack and infect only bacteria. Most research on bacteriophages involves analysing their interaction with host cells (bacteria) at the molecular level. To this end, mutants of bacteria resistant to bacteriophage infection – so-called phage-resistant strains – are constructed using genetic engineering tools. The genomes of such bacterial strains are later analysed to determine exactly where the mutation causing resistance to viral infections occurred.
Bacteriophages have a wide range of applications:
- in medicine,
- in the pharmaceutical industry,
- in agriculture,
- in technological processes.
The offered solution includes a method for obtaining phage-resistant strains (variants) of pectinolytic bacteria, especially Dickeya and Pectobacterium bacteria, including Dickeya solani. The obtained variants find application in studies of the emergence of bacterial resistance to bacteriophage infection, virulence studies of pectinolytic bacteria and their environmental adaptation and evolution.ji środowiskowej i ewolucji.
