ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an up-to-date knowledge on the general mechanisms of the early infection steps of the RNA phages: attachment, or adsorption, ejection of RNA, or eclipse, penetration of the phage RNA into bacterial cell, and phage release by the infected cells. The concept of the RNA phage replication cycle is formulated and the approaches to study the replication cycle are presented, including the special role of rifamycin in the replication cycle studies. Then, the phage inhibitory effects on the host and, vice versa, the effects of the host mutations on the RNA phage infection are analyzed. The studies on the inhibition of phage growth by different agents and outcomes of mixed infections are summarized. The historical and current data on the preparative RNA phage growth and purification are collected, considering the great demand for large-scale cultivation and purification protocols that are actual nowadays because of the cost pressure and growing GMP requirements in the nanotechnological applications. At last, special attention is devoted to the lysogeny problem in RNA phages.
