• Home
  • About
  • Add your site
  • Contact Us

HUMACON

Conservation of the Human Being

Subscribe to RSS

Subscribe via Email | RSS

How Viruses Destroy Bacteria

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 19:44  
Leave your comment

About my blog

A site that stands for innovation and exploration. We support green technology and renewable energy. And give you information about subjects that will help the human race to survive.

Recent Posts

  • Wind Turbines Help Crops by Channelling Beneficial Breezes Over Nearby Plants
  • Scientists Create Artificial Mini ‘Black Hole’
  • Oil Spill Puts Commercially Significant Cold-Water Reefs in Peril
  • ‘Top cap’ on BP oil spill not tight enough as crude keeps spewing
  • Sustainable Energy and the Return of the Fly(wheel)
  • Environmentalists try to ban release of synthetic life forms into the wild
  • Detroit: From Motor City To Urban Farm?

Recent Comments

  • Breonna Gazzola: Me and Jim were looking at obtaining some solar power system...
  • harvest central: I appreciate you for sustaining such a beneficial portal. th...
  • sudoku: A formidable share, I just given this onto a colleague who w...
  • Teeth Whitening: .*: I am really thankful to this topic because it really giv...
  • multifonction: Compassionate for the brobdingnagian scrutiny, but I'm truly...
  • Yannick VD: New alternative energies. New system for power generation wi...
  • effects of drinking alcohol: As i produce look and feel for a great write-up on behalf of...
---Sign In--- With facebook, twitter, gmail and more!

  • Green sites

    • AppleCream
    • DIY Solar Power
    • Go Green Tube
    • Human Survival
    • TechieNATION
    • Your Green Ability

  • Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries RSS
    • Comments RSS
    • WordPress.org

    • Your Ad Here
    Your Ad Here

    Apple Cream

    todays update on apple's products, facts and things of interest.   Read more!

    Special Offer 2

    This is a content area in the footer where you can promote special offers or activate widgets for recent posts, image galleries and more!  Read more!

    This blog copyright © HUMACON

    Powered by Armtrack

    Your Ad Here Your Ad Here
    Start uga_insert_html_once: head, Footer hooked: HTML inserted: Location is HEAD Start uga_get_option: footer_hooked uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: footer_hooked (1) End uga_insert_html Ending uga_wp_head_track: Start uga_filter:

    Viruses are well known for attacking humans and animals, but some viruses instead attack bacteria. Texas A&M University researchers are exploring how hungry viruses, armed with transformer-like weapons, attack bacteria, which may aid in the treatment of bacterial infections.

    The Texas A&M researchers’ work is published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

    The attackers are called phages, or bacteriophages, meaning eaters of bacteria.

    The word bacteriophage is derived from the Greek “phagein,” meaning eater of bacteria.

    “The phages first attach to the bacteria and then inject their DNA,” says Sun Qingan, coauthor of the article and a doctoral student at Texas A&M. “Then they reproduce inside the cell cytoplasm.”

    After more than 100 phage particles have been assembled, the next step is to be released from the bacterial host, so that the progeny virions can find other hosts and repeat the reproduction cycle, Sun adds.

    Besides the cell membrane, the phages have another obstacle on their way out — a hard shell called cell wall that protects the bacteria. Only by destroying the cell wall can the phages release their offspring.

    But, don’t worry. The phages have a secret weapon — an enzyme that can destroy the wall from inside, thus called endolysin.

    “One of the special examples, R21, remains inactive when it is first synthesized and attached to the membrane as demonstrated in our paper,” Sun explains. “But when the enzyme leaves the membrane, it restructures just like a transformer and gains the power to destroy the cell wall.”

    The trigger controlling the transformation process is a segment of the enzyme call the SAR domain, according to the Texas A&M team.

    “The SAR domain is like the commander — it tells the enzyme when to begin restructuring and destroying the cell wall,” he says. “This finding enables us to better understand the release process and provides us with a possible target when we want to control the destruction of bacteria cell walls or prohibit this action in some infectious diseases.”

    Some research has been conducted to explore the possibility of using phages to kill bacteria and thus treating bacterial infections.

    Sun and colleagues’ finding unveils one secret of the phages and may be useful in phage therapy and other applications.

    Start uga_in_feed Ending uga_in_feed: Start uga_track_user Start uga_get_option: ignore_users uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: ignore_users (1) Start uga_get_option: max_user_level uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: max_user_level (8) Tracking user with level 0 Ending uga_track_user: 1 Calling preg_replace_callback: ]*?)href\s*=\s*['"](.*?)['"]([^>]*)>(.*?) Ending uga_filter:

    Viruses are well known for attacking humans and animals, but some viruses instead attack bacteria. Texas A&M University researchers are exploring how hungry viruses, armed with transformer-like weapons, attack bacteria, which may aid in the treatment of bacterial infections.

    The Texas A&M researchers’ work is published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

    The attackers are called phages, or bacteriophages, meaning eaters of bacteria.

    The word bacteriophage is derived from the Greek “phagein,” meaning eater of bacteria.

    “The phages first attach to the bacteria and then inject their DNA,” says Sun Qingan, coauthor of the article and a doctoral student at Texas A&M. “Then they reproduce inside the cell cytoplasm.”

    After more than 100 phage particles have been assembled, the next step is to be released from the bacterial host, so that the progeny virions can find other hosts and repeat the reproduction cycle, Sun adds.

    Besides the cell membrane, the phages have another obstacle on their way out — a hard shell called cell wall that protects the bacteria. Only by destroying the cell wall can the phages release their offspring.

    But, don’t worry. The phages have a secret weapon — an enzyme that can destroy the wall from inside, thus called endolysin.

    “One of the special examples, R21, remains inactive when it is first synthesized and attached to the membrane as demonstrated in our paper,” Sun explains. “But when the enzyme leaves the membrane, it restructures just like a transformer and gains the power to destroy the cell wall.”

    The trigger controlling the transformation process is a segment of the enzyme call the SAR domain, according to the Texas A&M team.

    “The SAR domain is like the commander — it tells the enzyme when to begin restructuring and destroying the cell wall,” he says. “This finding enables us to better understand the release process and provides us with a possible target when we want to control the destruction of bacteria cell walls or prohibit this action in some infectious diseases.”

    Some research has been conducted to explore the possibility of using phages to kill bacteria and thus treating bacterial infections.

    Sun and colleagues’ finding unveils one secret of the phages and may be useful in phage therapy and other applications.

    Start uga_wp_footer_track: Start uga_get_tracker Start uga_in_feed Ending uga_in_feed: Start uga_track_user Start uga_get_option: ignore_users uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: ignore_users (1) Start uga_get_option: max_user_level uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: max_user_level (8) Tracking user with level 0 Ending uga_track_user: 1 Start uga_get_option: account_id uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: account_id (UA-10399907-2) Ending uga_get_tracker: Start uga_insert_html_once: footer, Footer hooked: HTML inserted: Location is FOOTER Inserting HTML End uga_insert_html Ending uga_wp_footer_track: Start uga_shutdown Start uga_in_feed Ending uga_in_feed: Start uga_track_user Start uga_get_option: ignore_users uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: ignore_users (1) Start uga_get_option: max_user_level uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: max_user_level (8) Tracking user with level 0 Ending uga_track_user: 1 Footer hook was executed Start uga_get_option: footer_hooked uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: footer_hooked (1) Start uga_get_option: debug uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: debug (1) -->