The present invention concerns a production bacterial cell for producing lytic phage particles or lytic phage-derived delivery vehicles, said production bacterial cell stably comprising at least one phage structural genes and at least one phage DNA packaging genes, said phage structural gene(s) and phage DNA packaging gene(s) being derived from a lytic bacteriophage, wherein the expression of at least one of said phage structural genes and/or at least one of said phage DNA packaging gene(s) in said production bacterial cell is controlled by an induction mechanism.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for rapid detection of microorganisms in a sample. A genetically modified bacteriophage is also disclosed which comprises an indicator gene in the late gene region. The specificity of the bacteriophage, such as CBA120, allows detection of a specific microorganism, such as E. coli O157:H7, and an indicator signal may be amplified to optimize assay sensitivity.

The present disclosure provides methods and compositions for modifying the genomes of bacteriophages, in particular by integrating a coding sequence for an anti-CRISPR protein into the bacteriophage genome together with a desired modification such as a deletion, insertion, or nucleotide substitution, and selecting for bacteriophages with the integrated anti-CRISPR coding sequence by introducing the phage into a counter selection strain comprising an RNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas system.

The invention provides propagator cells and methods for propagating phage and transduction particles.

The invention provides propagator cells and methods for propagating phage and transduction particles.