#microber2023 #inktober2022 Light: phage therapy offers a “light at the end of the tunnel” when faced with the antibiotic apocalypse. Phages can treat and kill these potentially life-threatening antimicrobial-resistant infections and save lives. #SciArt #phage
#microber2022 #inktober2022 Protect: bacteria have a whole host of systems such as CRISPR-Cas to protect them from bacteriophage infections. An individual bacterium is unlikely to carry all the different options as it would be too great a burden. #SciArt #Phage
#microber2022 #inktober2022 19 Ocean: every drop off water from the ocean is full of bacteriophages, ~250 million per ml! They outnumber bacterial cells 10:1. #SciArt #phage
#Microber2022 #inktober2022 18 Metal: metal ions such as calcium or magnesium chloride can be crucial to phage-host binding and hence reproduction. Forgetting the metal can lead to really disappointing results. #phage #SciArt
#microber2022 #inktober2022 14 Community: understanding microbial communities through sequencing, effort is focused on bacteria and their functions. Viruses (inc phages), fungi, etc are overlooked, but #phage are vitally important in shaping communities and functions #SciArt
#microber2022 #inktober2022 13 DNA: phage’s heads are packed with nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), the blueprints for making new phages. CryoEM can allow the DNA structures to be visualised. #SciArt #Phage
#microber2022 #inktober2022 12 Parasitic: a parasite of a Human parasite can be used as an important treatment. Phage therapy has the potential to treat antibacterial resistant bacterial infections which can’t be killed by antibiotics alone. #SciArt #Phage
#microber2022 #inktober2022 10 Time: time is critical for phage infection and successful proliferation. This could be because phages can only infect at a certain the growth stage, point in the diel cycle or prior to biofilm formation doi.org/10.1016/j.biof… #SciArt #Phage
#Microber2022 #inktober2022 Sleep: while phages don’t actually sleep, when there are no bacterial hosts around they are inert 💤 . Phages can be stored in a dark fridge for years, just waiting for a bacteria to come along so they can “wake up” and reproduce #SciArt #Phage
#Microber2022 #inktober2022 7 Transform: to manipulate bacteria they are transformed by adding DNA that codes for a function of interest. Transforming phage is more complex, firstly the DNA is added to a host bacterium, which is infected with the #phage #SciArt
#PortfolioDay I'm Ellie and I like drawing microbes, particularly bacteria and #phage! #SciArt
Adhesion #Microber2021 #inktober2021 phages recognise and bind to host receptors, then irreversibly bind to inject their genomic material into the host to replicate #phage #SciArt
Strain #Microber2021 #inktober2021 there are many different strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae. They are classed as the same species, but show some genetic differences. This can be in the capsule genes that protect them from antibiotics and some phages #SciArt #phage
Leak #inktober2021 #Microber2021 sometimes host DNA leaks into new phage particles during packaging and can lead to horizontal gene transfer #SciArt #Phage #WorldPhageWeek
Plasmid #Microber2021 #inktober2021 most prophages integrate their DNA with their hosts’ genome, some however are maintained as a separate plasmid #phage #SciArt keep tuned for #WorldPhageDay tomorrow
Sprout #inktober2021 #Microber2021 phages can be used to prevent disease-causing bacteria growing on food like Alfalfa sprouts which have been associated with food poisoning outbreaks #SciArt #Phage keep tuned for #WorldPhageWeek #WorldPhageDay 22nd October
Loop #inktober2021 #Microber2021 phages are part of the microbial loop which helps bacteria to proliferate, feeding higher tropic levels. Microbes use waste dissolved organic carbon from dead microbes (some killed by phages) to grow and replicate #SciArt #phage Not to scale!
Compass #inktober2021 #Microber2021 based on the Alethiometer I would love an instrument that could tell me which are the key microbes in a given environment or which phage infects which bacterial host #phage #SciArt
Toxin #Microber2021 #inktober2021 some nasty bacteria infections such as Cholera, Botulism are due to toxins in temperate phages they carry. One reason temperate phages are avoided for phage therapy. 22 Oct #WorldPhageDay #Phage #SciArt Read more: frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
Division #Microber2021 #inktober2021 viruses are divided based on morphology, host range or genomes. Archaeal viruses can look similar to phages, but others are unique! Difficulties dividing phages along morphological lines mean ICTV will use genomes instead #SciArt #phage
Wall #Microber2021 Stuck #inktober2021 in the phage life cycle new phage particles are stuck in the cell unless they can degrade the bacterial cell membrane and wall. Phages encode spanins or endolysins to do this. #phage #SciArt
“Watch” #inktober2021 infection dynamics of cyanophages are linked to diel light cycles. Some phages time infection with dawn and lysis of their hosts with the coming of dusk. They benefit from photosynthetic energy production and avoid being degraded by UV light #phage #SciArt
