FIGURE 3.

Lytic life cycle of phages inside a biofilm. (1) Adsorption of the phage particle onto the host bacterial cell surface. Tail fibers bind to specific receptors on the cell surface. (2) Injection of the nucleic acid into the cytoplasm of the host bacterium. (3) Replication of the phage genome in multiple copies. Phage early genes are expressed to regulate the host metabolic machinery to be subjected to phage propagation. (4) Formation of new phage particles by expression of the phage late genes and assembly of the phage heads and tails, packaging of the nucleic acid inside the heads and maturation of the virions. (5) Lysis of the host bacterium and release of the new phage progeny ready to infect other cells in the biofilm and start a new cycle.