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DOME TO STAR SHAPE. "This study examines how the high-energy, dome-shaped infectious form of the bacteriophage T4 baseplate assembles as opposed to how it assembles in the low-energy, star-shaped form that occurs after infection." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

DEGENERATION BEYOND SELECTION. “Many manifestations of aging happen after the reproductive period of evolving organisms at ages which are beyond the reach of natural selection." http://longevity-science.org/Evolution.htm View in LinkedIn

BASEPLATE CONFORMATION CHANGE ON INFECTION. "Although these two structures represent different minima in the total energy landscape of the baseplate assembly, as the dome-shaped structure readily changes to the star-shaped structure when the virus infects a host bacterium, the dome-shaped structure must have more energy than the star-shaped structure." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

IMMORTALITY LOST. "Biological evolution acts to increase the fitness and performance of species evolving in successive generations. From this perspective it was difficult to understand why natural selection seemed to result in such bizarrely injurious features as senescence and late-life degenerative diseases instead of eternal youth and immortality." https://lnkd.in/dMUQBti View in LinkedIn

SHARED TOOLKIT. "Two evolutionary related structures, of pyocin and of the type VI secretion system, are found in bacteria as defense systems to kill competing bacteria. These structures are remarkably similar to the tail baseplate structure of bacteriophages, suggesting that tail baseplate-like structures are effective organelles for infecting bacteria." 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

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

"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

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

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