Others are transmitted by bacteriophages, specialised viruses that infect bacteria.

另一些则通过噬菌体传播，噬菌体是一种专门感染细菌的病毒。

In the last few years, bacteriophages have enjoyed the attention of the second deadliest beings on earth: humans.

最近几年，噬菌体引起了世界上第二致命生物的关注——人类。

Turns out, we have our own uses for bacteriophages.

事实证明，我们对噬菌体有自己的用途。

But in the wild, bacteria use CRISPR to defend themselves against their viral enemies: bacteriophages.

但在野外，细菌使用 CRISPR 来抵御它们的病毒敌人：噬菌体。

Like a row of " most-wanted" posters, CRISPR helps them find and destroy bacteriophages if they return.

就像一排“头号通缉犯”的海报，如果他们回来，CRISPR 会帮助他们找到并摧毁噬菌体。

But mucus contains mucins, antimicrobial peptides, antibodies, and even bacteria-hungry viruses called bacteriophages that all work together to prevent biofilms from forming.

但黏液中包含黏蛋白，抗菌肽，抗体，还有能吞噬细菌的病毒，叫做噬菌体。这些成分协同作用防止生物膜的生成。

More specialized vectors have been engineered to use aspects of plasmids and bacteriophages, such as the plasmid-bacteriophage h hybrids known as cosmids

质粒和噬菌体已经在很多种类的细菌中被使用来表达基因，并且一些噬菌体也许已经被用来将DNA整合到宿主基因组上。

They have no cytoplasmic membrane, cytosol, or functional organelles, but they can infect all types of cells and numerous viruses can also infect bacteria, which are called bacteriophages.

虽然没有细胞膜、细胞质和功能性细胞器，但它们可以感染所有类型的细胞；许多病毒也能感染细菌，这类病毒也被称为噬菌体。

Viruses and bacteriophages are not capable of metabolic activity on their own, so instead, they invade other cells and use their metabolic machinery to produce more viral molecules, nucleic acid, and proteins, which then assemble into new viruses.

众多病毒、噬菌体不能独立进行代谢活动，因此，它们侵入其它细胞，利用细胞的代谢机制来制造更多的病毒颗粒、核酸和蛋白质，然后再将这些组装成新的病毒。

Others can screen for bacterial infections like the deadly MRSA. Or these bacteriophages could eventually be used as phage therapy, instead of antibiotics: to target, infect, and kill certain harmful bacteria without destroying our friendly microbes.

其他人可以筛查细菌感染，如致命的 MRSA。或者这些噬菌体最终可以用作噬菌体疗法，而不是抗生素：在不破坏我们友好微生物的情况下靶向、感染和杀死某些有害细菌。