Catch a virus by its tail—researchers find bacterial immune system alters tails of phages

Phages, viruses that attack bacteria, have a head and a tail. The head contains the phage’s genetic material and the tail is used to identify a potential host, that is, a bacterial cell into which it can inject this material. Once the injection is complete, the phage hijacks the bacterium’s cellular machinery and forces it to produce new copies of itself, which ultimately burst the cell and infect other bacteria in the colony. Phages, viruses that attack bacteria, have a head and a tail. The head contains the phage’s genetic material and the tail is used to identify a potential host, that is, a bacterial cell into which it can inject this material. Once the injection is complete, the phage hijacks the bacterium’s cellular machinery and forces it to produce new copies of itself, which ultimately burst the cell and infect other bacteria in the colony. Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Phys.org – latest science and technology news stories