Tuesday, November 4, 2008

T4 Phage?








Pictures of T4 Bacteriophage
Looks like an alien landing pod.
Bacteriophage attaches to surface of bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli).
Once attached, it injects DNA into bacterium, which uses bacterium to generate more DNA to produce more of such bacteriophage. After cycle is complete, bacterium bursts and dies, releasing newly produced bacteriophages to continue infecting other bacteria.
Bacteriophages have been used as an antibiotic in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They are seen as a possible therapy against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria.
T4 bacteriophage undergoes a lytic lifecycle. It takes about 30 minutes (at 37 °C) and consists of:
Adsorption and penetration (immediate)
Arrest of host gene expression (immediate)
Enzyme synthesis (starts after 5 mins)
DNA replication (starts after 10 mins)
Formation of new virus particles (starts after 12 mins)
Courtesy of: http://www.cellsalive.com/phage.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T4_phage

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