Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1992;124(3-4):201-9.
doi: 10.1007/BF01309802.

Frequency of morphological phage descriptions

H W Ackermann  1
Affiliations

Frequency of morphological phage descriptions

H W Ackermann. Arch Virol. 1992.

Abstract

Bacteriophages are listed by morphotypes and host genera. At least 4.007 phages, belonging to 13 virus families, have been described since 1960. About 3,850 phages (96%) are tailed and 154 phages (4%) are cubic, filamentous, or pleomorphic. Siphoviridae or phages with long noncontractile tails constitute 60% of tailed phages. Phages are found in over 100 bacterial genera including archaebacteria and rickettsiae. Their distribution is very uneven and probably reflects the evolutionary history of bacteria.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Crit Rev Microbiol. 1988;15(4):339-89 - PubMed
    1. Intervirology. 1974;3(4):201-19 - PubMed
    1. Pathol Biol (Paris). 1969 Nov;17(21):1003-24 - PubMed
    1. Microbiol Sci. 1987 Jul;4(7):214-8 - PubMed
    1. Intervirology. 1991;32(1):2-9 - PubMed