Phage phiKZ—The First of Giants

Abstract

The paper covers the history of the discovery and description of phiKZ, the first known giant bacteriophage active on Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It also describes its unique features, especially the characteristic manner of DNA packing in the head around a cylinder-shaped structure (“inner body”), which probably governs an ordered and tight packaging of the phage genome. Important properties of phiKZ-like phages include a wide range of lytic activity and the blue opalescence of their negative colonies, and provide a background for the search and discovery of new P. aeruginosa giant phages. The importance of the phiKZ species and of other giant phage species in practical phage therapy is noted given their broad use in commercial phage preparations.