Huge Phages Carry CRISPR Arrays, Cas Protein Genes (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Huge Phages Carry CRISPR Arrays, Cas Protein Genes

Caption

Depiction of huge phages (red, left) and normal phages infecting a bacterial cell. The huge phage injects its DNA into the host cell, where Cas proteins -- part of the CRISPR immune system typically found only in bacteria and archaea -- manipulate the host cell's response to other viruses. The UC Berkeley team has not yet photographed any huge phages, so all are depicted resembling the most common type of phage, T4.

Credit

UC Berkeley image courtesy of Jill Banfield lab

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