Structure Of Virulent Pathogen Revealed
Thursday, January 1, 2009 - 01:36
in Biology & Nature
Like high-profile politicians, pathogenic bacteria dispatch advance teams to make way for their arrival. But these bacterial agents don't just secure a safe passage, as a Secret Service detail might do. Rather they are teams of molecules that bacteria inject into cells they want to colonize, sent to hijack their hosts' biochemistry to serve their master's microbial needs. These molecules -- called virulence factors -- co-opt essential cell functions including the reproduction cycle and cell structure assembly, suppressing the cells' defenses against bacterial invasion and causing disease.
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