The Overlooked Power of Targeted Phage Lysis in Bacterial Biosensing

Cell lysis to release intracellular targets is a vital step in many bacterial sensing platforms and is often achieved through chemical or physical approaches. However, these conventional methods can have certain limitations such as cost, required equipment, safety, or risk of target damage. Cell lysis induced by bacteriophages, which are bacteria-infecting viruses, has some notable advantages, including safety and the self-amplifying properties of phage. Bacteriophages also induce species-selective infection, enabling the targeted lysis of a specific bacterial species in mixed cultures. Despite this, bacteriophage-induced lysis has to date been relatively poorly adopted in the bacterial biosensing field. In this Perspective, we outline the potential benefits of bacteriophage lysis in biosensors, while also exploring the reasons that it has not been more widely adopted. We also identify future research directions to facilitate increased incorporation of bacteriophages into bacterial detection platforms, including improving the characterization, availability, and stability of phage strains.