FIGURE 1.

The majority of identified bacteriophages within the oral cavity pertain to the Caudovirales order, which contains three different families of tailed bacteriophages, all with an icosahedral capsid along with a linear dsDNA genome that is injected into bacterial hosts after penetration of cell membrane with tail. A, Myoviridae have a long contractile tail; B, Siphoviriadae have a long, noncontractile tail; and C, Podoviridae have a short tail