Matthew Loper: M13 Questions

2. M13 is a member of the filamentous bacteria phage group called Ff. It is closely related to fd and F10 phages. All members of the Ff class are very closely related and M13 only differs from its cousins in the composition of its protein coat.

3. It is true to say that M1307 is not a biological part because it is the genome of an entire organism. However, one could make the argument that since the phage infects bacteria and inserts its entire genome into the infected bacteria, the phage plasmid genome becomes a part of the E. coli.