Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and generally have three main components (head, tail, tail fibres).

A bacteriophage, or phage for short, is a virus that infects bacteria. Like other types of viruses, bacteriophages vary a lot in their shape and genetic material.

Typically, a common bacteriophage has three main components: the head which stores genetic material, the tail, which is a passageway for genetic material to be injected into host bacteria. The end contains tail fibres which help the bacteriophage attach to the host bacteria.