3 ms·

First high-res look at microbial ballistics: Harpoons, spears, Gatling guns

• jfarlow 9y ago
  They actually get smaller yet - cellular warfare even. Entire protein collections (R-Bodies) that are like explosive coiled springs [1] that can be made to be pH-sensitive so that when they're 'eaten' by a cell, they explode, bursting the cell from the inside. Bacteriophages have terrifying-looking injection ports [2]. And there are other viral 'latch-like' proteins that do significant damage to host membranes when deployed in order to permit their own payloads to be deposited. The entire CRISPR system is a defensive homing weapon used to literally dice up a virus's DNA were any of the above weapons successfully used to enter a cell. [1] http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00237 http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00237 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]