What is "mycobacteriophage"

n. (context biology English) Any bacteriophage that infects mycobacteria

A mycobacteriophage is a member of a group of bacteriophages known to have mycobacteria as host bacterial species. While originally isolated from the bacterial species Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, more than 4,200 mycobacteriophage have since been isolated from various environmental and clinical sources. Almost 600 have been completely sequenced. Mycobacteriophages have served as examples of viral lysogeny and of the divergent morphology and genetic arrangement characteristic of many phage types.

All mycobacteriophages found thus far have had double-stranded DNA genomes and have been classified by their structure and appearance into siphoviridae or myoviridae.