How a germ catches a virus
Friday, July 1, 2016 - 10:41
in Biology & Nature
Bacteriophages -- short phages -- represent a group of small viruses that infect bacteria and are able to alter or destroy them. That is why their name can be translated as bacteria-eater. In order to infect a bacterium, a phage has to first recognize structures on the bacterial cell wall and adhere to it. Scientists have now investigated the mechanism of recognition. They focused their studies on the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and the phage Phi11, which infects staphylococci.