Abstract
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Bacteriophages are ubiquitous and are the most abundant organisms on the planet. Despite this, very little is known about the influence and effect of bacteriophages within terrestrial environments. Additionally, the natural soil microbiome profiles remain largely unexplored. Here we describe protocols that can be used, in field or rural laboratories containing only basic equipment, to make bacteriophage isolation more accessible and to facilitate such research.
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Acknowledgments
A number of research projects led up to the refining of these methods and were sponsored by the DFG (German Research Foundation BE-2157/3-1), the NRF (National Research Foundation of South Africa 78909), and the ITM (Institute for Tropical Medicine FA4 grant). All credit for field expertise and sample collection goes to the staff of the Skukuza State Veterinary Office, with a special thanks to Mr. Edgar Henry Dekker, without whom none of this work would have been possible.
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Hassim, A., Lekota, K.E. (2024). Isolation of Bacteriophages from Soil Samples in a Poorly Equipped Field Laboratory in Kruger National Park. In: Tumban, E. (eds) Bacteriophages. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2738. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3549-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3549-0_5
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