SUMMARY Fifty years ago, David Baltimore published a brief conceptual paper delineating
the classification of viruses by the routes of genome expression. The six “Baltimore classes” …

Originally, viruses were defined as miniscule infectious agents that passed through filters
that retain even the smallest cells. Subsequently, viruses were considered obligate …

Bacteriophages (phages) are selective viral predators of bacteria. Abundant and ubiquitous
in nature, phages can be used to treat bacterial infections (phage therapy), including …

Temperate phages are pervasive in bacterial genomes, existing as vertically inherited
islands termed prophages. Prophages are vulnerable to predation of their host bacterium by …

Temperate phages are pervasive in nature, existing within bacterial cells in a form known as
prophages. In this state, survival of the phage is intricately tied to the survival of the bacterial …

Viruses are important ecological, biogeochemical, and evolutionary drivers in every
environment. Upon infection, they often cause the lysis of the host cell. However, some …

Temperate phages dynamically switch between lysis and lysogeny in their full life cycle.
Some Bacillus-infecting phages utilize a quorum-sensing-like intercellular communication …

Bacteriophages or phages are viruses that infect bacterial cells (for the scope of this review
we will also consider viruses that infect Archaea). The constant threat of phage infection is a …

Aquatic viruses are naturally present in the aquatic environment and the number of viruses
is staggering. Various multicellular organisms in aquatic ecosystems may be infected, cross …

Prokaryotic genomes are replete with mobile genetic elements (MGE) that span a continuum
of replication autonomy. On numerous occasions during microbial evolution, diverse MGE …