4 ms·
How a bacterial cell recognizes its own DNA
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tim333 12y agotl;dr There's a sequence called a Chi sequence found very frequently throughout the bacterial genome, but rarely in the viral one. Amazing the complexity of nature - I didn't realise bacteria had immune systems.
- cjg 12y agoI want to know why the viruses haven't evolved to include Chi sites in their DNA. My initial thought is perhaps a downwards pressure on the maximum length of the viral DNA, or perhaps Chi sites stop the DNA packaging properly.