a type of virus that infects bacterial cells is called a
bacteriophage. A bacteriophage is a type of virus that infects bacteria. In fact, the word bacteriophage literally means bacteria eater, because bacteriophages destroy their host cells.All bacteriophages are composed of a nucleic acid molecule that is surrounded by a protein structure.ventually, new bacteriophages assemble and burst out of the bacterium in a process called lysis. Bacteriophages occasionally remove a portion of their host cells' bacterial DNA during the infection process and then transfer this DNA into the genome of new host cells. This process is known as transduction.