Delta phage (IMAGE)
Caption
A delta bacteriophage, the first identified in a new study in Frontiers in Microbiology to have binding sites for CtrA, a protein produced by the bacteriophage's host that regulates the production of pili and flagella. The presence of these binding sites only in phages that require their host cells to have pili/flagella in order to infect them suggests that the phage is monitoring the presence of this protein in order to "decide" whether to stay put or replicate and emerge from its host cell.
Credit
Tagide deCarvalho/UMBC
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Original content