Stochastic models for bacteriophage

Abstract

Viruses are small particles of RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) or DNA (DeoxyRibonucleic Acid) wrapped in a protein coat, which can be crystallized into a variety of regular geometric, often polyhedral, shapes. They are much smaller than bacteria, and are capable of passage through filters designed to, arrest these. Among the numerous viruses, bacteriophages (or bacterial viruses), called phages for short, have been the subject of much concentrated study. Over the past twenty years in particular, their structure, parasitic cycle, and most recently part of their genetic mapping, have been elucidated; the isolated DNA strand used by phages as their genetic information carrier, makes them eminently suitable in investigations on the molecular basis of life.