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When a virus strikes a bacterium

When a virus strikes a bacterium

Bacteriophages – or simply phages – are viruses that infect bacteria. They achieve their goals using diverse strategies, from skilful hiding in bacteria as “parasites”, which increases their evolutionary chances of survival, to killing bacteria cells. Dr Rafał Mostowy from the JU Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology is launching a research project focusing on the first stage of the infection of bacteria by phages.

For billions of years, bacteria and phages have been competing in the evolutionary race. Hence, both these groups of organisms have worked out evolutionary strategies to outsmart each other. Our understanding of these mechanisms is still quite limited. This is because phages are the most genetically diverse biological entities on planet Earth. Their sheer number is impressive – in a pinch of soil there is more of them than people in Tokyo – the most populous city on Earth. Hence, the better understanding of the biology of these viruses is one of the major scientific challenges of our time.

As phages have been developing ways to kill bacteria for millions of years, researchers are very keen on learning more about their biology. This fact was discovered as early as 100 years ago, which was followed by attempts to use phages in treatment for bacterial infections. They failed due to the biological complexity of these viruses and a number of unexplored molecular mechanisms in both phages and bacteria. The idea has recently been resurrected because of the growing problem of bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics and other drugs and, consequently, the shrinking arsenal of effective medications against these pathogens. Research achievements in this field include the discovery of the CRISPR-Cas genome editing, for which the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded last year, underlining the medical importance of studies into interactions between bacteria and phages.

The research project of Dr Rafał Mostowy from the JU Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology fosues on the first stage of phage infection of bacteria – the interaction between proteins in bacteriophage “tail” and bacteria surface sugars (as shown in the diagram). Both bacteriophage tails and bacteria sugars are extremely diverse, and their interactions can be compared to those of a key and a lock – a specific enzyme in a phage is needed to recognise a specific sugar. If researchers manage to better understand the nature of these interactions, they will be one step closer to establishing, based solely on the phage genetic sequence, which virus recognises which bacterium, This will contribute to better understanding of the complexities of phage therapy and better prediction of its results. The large-scale analysis of anti-sugar enzymes will enhance knowledge of new classes of antibacterial drugs, known as enzybiotics, which can be possibly used to remove sugars from virulent bacteria, which would make them more visible to our immune system. 

The research will be carried out in collaboration with the team of Prof. Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa from the University of Wrocław. The five-year project has received a 748,699 PLN grant, half of which will go to the Jagiellonian University.

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