Year: 2022

ACTIVATION OF INFECTIOUS DNA. "Phage tails are responsible for host cell recognition and delivery of the viral genome to the host cytoplasm. At the beginning of viral infection the phage adsorption apparatus, located at the tail end distal from the capsid, binds to the host receptor, generating a signal that triggers opening of the neck. DNA then moves through the tail tube to enter the host cell." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

PNEUMATIC DRAWBRIDGE. "The gatekeeper system opens for viral genome exit at the beginning of infection but recloses afterward, suggesting a molecular diaphragm-like mechanism to control DNA efflux. The mechanisms described here, controlling the essential steps of phage genome movements during virus assembly and infection, are likely to be conserved among long-tailed phages, the largest group of viruses in the Biosphere." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

HIGH PRESSURE COMPARTMENT. "This sophisticated part of mechanics combines features of a flexible joint that can act as a camera aperture with robust architecture that can withstand the strong forces produced by the internal pressure of packed DNA at the beginning of the DNA ejection process (47 ± 6 atm for wild-type SPP1)." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY. "Will That tailed bacteriophages are the most abundant biological entities on Earth indicates the evolutionary advantage of this strategy for infecting bacterial cells. Infection by these viruses plays a central role in microbial ecosystems dynamics and in the horizontal transmission of genetic information within the bacterial world." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

ANOTHER BACTERIOPHAGE. "The M13 bacteriophage (Phage) is composed of 2, 700 copies of the helically arranged pVIII major coat protein on its body. Five to seven copies each of pIII, pVI, pIX, and pVII are located at each end of the M13 phage. It is a virus nanofiber of approximately 880 nm in length and 6.6 nm in diameter and is safe in humans." https://lnkd.in/dB6DwQj View in LinkedIn

BIOMIMICRY OF MILD CONDITION CHEMISTRY. "The M13 bacteriophage has demonstrated its capacity to fabricate various noble structures with evident functionality. The characteristic self-assembly property, the aqueous mild synthesis condition, and easy functionality of the M13 bacteriophage structure allows for its significant contribution to a variety of scientific areas." https://lnkd.in/dB6DwQj View in LinkedIn

MANIFEST APPLICATIONS. "Recently innovative 2-D and 3-D structures were successfully constructed using the M13 bacteriophage. Its unique properties have been exploited in several studies relating to energy storage and harvesting area such as rechargeable batteries, piezoelectric devices, and solar cells." https://lnkd.in/dB6DwQj View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this glimpse at the assembly of bacteriophages, these quasi-living viral entities, seemingly from outer space, whose apparent simplicity has us completely and entirely fooled. Just a dumb virus, we say. Not only the most successful creatures on earth but have played a major role in the evolution of humans and other life on this planet. So much for simplicity: the biggest outsourcing job in the history of the planet. And a vastly complex geometric enterprise. It is the plodding biologists who are dumb. View in LinkedIn

DEATH REPRESSOR AND ANTAGONIST. "In humans and mice, around twenty gene products that are homologues of the cell death repressor Ced-9 and its antagonist Egl-1 (the Bcl-2 family) have been identified, as well as more than ten homologues of the executioner Ced-3 (the caspase family) and at least one homologue of Ced-4 (Apaf-1, or apoptotic protease-activating factor 1)." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

NEUTRALIZING DEATH. "The death repressors (Bcl-2/Bcl-XL ¼ ) and their antagonists (Bax/Bak/Bid ¼ ) share the capacity to homodimerize and to neutralize each others through heterodimerization, and, for some of them, to insert through a carboxyterminal hydrophobic transmembrane domain into the outer membrane of intracellular organelles such as the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn