Cell's recycling team helps sound alarm on pathogens
Thursday, January 22, 2015 - 10:00
in Biology & Nature
Autophagy recycles materials in the cell and is also an efficient method of eliminating viruses, bacteria, and parasites. However, for fungal invaders, researchers have found that the cleanup crew takes a less straightforward approach. Rather than killing fungal invaders directly, autophagy is used to chew up a molecule that would otherwise hold back the immune response. It's sort of like breaking the glass on an alarm to allow the button to be pushed.