Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: Sebastiaan on 11/11/2004 19:48:42
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Does anybody know why/how some bacteria get resistant against bacteriophages? In an excelen article (Nature 2002), they isolated the enzyme (lysin) from a phage, since bacteria do not get resistant against the protein.
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Did you know that a lot of the fully sequenced bacterial genomes actually contain stretches of integrated viral DNA. Could be taken as an indication that they survived an infection. But how/why, dunno.
--- man is twice the worm it used to be ---
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Endonucleases that are specific to sequences in the viral genome will also cause a bacteria to protect itself against viral intrusion.
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Many bacteria contain a cupboard full of genomic skeletons - the molecular vestiges of so-called lysogenic or 'hitch-hiking' phages which insert their genomes into the bacterial chromosome and remain in an inactive state for hundreds of bacterial generations. As the bacteria copy their genetic material they copy the phage too.
At some subsequent juncture the phage reactivates, departs from the lysogenic state, and reverts to virulence. It's possible to isolate these so called vir-mutants (vir for virulence) and use them in phage therapy.
Chris
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx