Strain
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A strain is a subset of a bacterial species differing from other bacteria of the same species by some minor but identifiable difference.
A strain can also be defined as a population of organisms that descends from a single organism or pure culture isolate. Strains within a species may differ slightly from one another in many ways.
Strains are often created in the laboratory by mutagenizing existing strains or wild-type examples of bacterial species.
The term strain is also applicable to eukaryotic microorganisms, as well as to viruses.
Many diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, have multiple strains.