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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

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

EXIT CHUTE MECHANISM. "DNA is locked in a capsid by gp16 loops that close the channel by an allosteric mechanism. Gp16 appears to open by a diaphragm-like motion, allowing the genome to exit the capsid through the tail tube to the host cell." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

DEATH STARTED WITH MULTICELLULARITY? "There have been two main reasons that have led to the proposal that programmed cell death emerged with multicellularity. The first pertains to the very nature of multicellular organisms. Cells from multicellular organisms (in contrast to cells from single-celled organisms) are condemned to live together in a given spatial and temporal framework, the body. " http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

LOCKED INTO LAUNCH VESSEL. "Termination of the DNA packaging reaction is coordinated with closure of the portal system to avoid leakage of the viral genome. The outflow of DNA is prevented by conformational changes in the portal protein and binding of head completion proteins building the viral genome gatekeeper." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

TWO BIG ENDOSYMBIOTIC EVENTS. "Two distinct evolutions by bacterial endosymbiosis gave rise to eukaryotic realms. Firstly, proteobacteria developing to the mitochondria of all eukaryotic cells and secondly, cyanobacteria that changed to chloroplasts in plant evolution." http://mcb.berkeley.edu/courses/mcbc245/MCBC245PDFs/Jan31/Huettenbrenner2003.pdf View in LinkedIn

HIGH PRESSURE DNA STORAGE UNIT. "The dsDNA bacterial viruses (phages or bacteriophages) and herpes viruses keep their genetic information packed at high pressure inside an icosahedral protein capsid. During virus particle assembly the genome is translocated into a prebuilt procapsid through a specialized portal vertex of the capsid." (dsDNA = double stranded DNA). https://lnkd.in/dw4E_8F View in LinkedIn