Month: September 2022

DUAL FUNCTIONS. "Molecular effectors of cell suicide may also perform other functions unrelated to cell death induction and crucial to cell survival. In this review, I will argue that this new level of complexity, implying that there may be no such thing as a 'bona fide' genetic death program in our cells, might be better understood when considered in an evolutionary context." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

SOCIAL COUPLING. "The coupling of the fate of each cell to the nature of the interactions it can establish with other cells has led to the concept of 'social control' of cell survival and cell death, allowing a stringent regulation of cell numbers, of their geographic localization, and a constant adjustment of the different cell types that constitute our organs and tissues." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

PERMANENT REPRIEVE. "This very frailty, this permanent reprieve and the interdependence they generate between our cells, are one of the bases of our perennity and our plasticity, allowing our bodies to build themselves, to constantly reconstruct, and to adapt to ever changing environments." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

CONSERVATION AND COMPLEXITY. "During the last nine years, homologues of genes involved in the regulation of programmed cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans have been identified in sponge, in Hydra vulgaris, in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, in zebrafish, in mice and in humans. As frequently occurs during evolution, however, this striking conservation in both sequences and functional properties has been associated with a great level of diversification." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE examines the complex construction of bacteriophages (phages) that prey on bacteria, and how the structure changes dramatically when the phages become infectious. These are truly beautiful, geometrical and remarkable creatures that flip between the chemical and the living world with ease, and cause great consternation for (mostly) older taxonomists and biologists who assert that they are not living. And that they are simple. View in LinkedIn

BRILLIANT ANIMATION of phage assembly. If anyone still uses the term "simple organisms" for bacteria and phages, please watch this animation. It is an engineer's nightmare of complexity. It even makes the human foot look relatively simple. And all controlled by different sets of genes that coordinate the assembly and activation. Clearly, a simple creature (not). https://lnkd.in/drFkmxq View in LinkedIn

BEAUTIFUL MOLECULAR STRUCTURES characterize phages. Check out the lovely illustrations in each of the cited publications. Nature is usually thought of as non-Euclidian. Without squares, circles, triangles and straight lines. Not in the world of viruses. View in LinkedIn

"BACTERIOPHAGE T4 consists of a head for protecting its genome and a sheathed tail for inserting its genome into a host. The tail terminates with a multiprotein baseplate that changes its conformation from a “high-energy” dome-shaped to a “low-energy” star-shaped structure during infection." https://lnkd.in/dmptCPC View in LinkedIn

PHAGE TAIL INITIATES INFECTION. "Most bacteriophages have a tail. At the distal end of the tail there is usually a baseplate that is decorated by some fibers. The baseplate initiates infection when the tail fibers bind to a host cell. Signals are transmitted from the tail fibers via the baseplate to the tail that then trigger the ejection of the phage genome from the head into the host cell through the tail tube." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

WELL CHARACTERIZED. "Bacteriophage T4 uses Escherichia coli as a host and belongs to the Myoviridae family of phages, characterized by contractile tails. Its structure and assembly have been extensively studied using biochemical, cryo-electron microscopic and X-ray crystallographic methods. Many of the proteins that form the structure of the T4 capsid, packaging motor, and tail have been determined." https://lnkd.in/dBRfr4E View in LinkedIn