Page 1 of 1

phage iron spike imaged

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:00 pm
by mikesw
Here's an article that explains how they imaged the iron spike that allows phages to penetrate bacteria.
One of the interesting things they discovered is that during the pentration phase, the virus' proteins
don't unfold. Has pictures too! This seems opposite to the news article on hemagglutinin and how it gets into the cell thats
on the folding website.

http://www.cell.com/structure/abstract/ ... 11)00469-2

Any folding here to confirm their findings?

Re: phage iron spike imaged

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:30 pm
by Jesse_V
How interesting... You mean that it's in a way contradictory to what's at http://folding.typepad.com/news/2012/02 ... ginia.html?
I find it a bit amusing that they refer to the proteins as "iron spikes". Seems like regular English in stark contrast to how they name other proteins!
Looks like that paper was published three weeks ago, so I guess if it is correct then it's just the regular evolution of scientific understanding. My guess is that Dr. Kasson would probably find it pretty interesting.
Are you sure they are the same protein? Maybe there's more going on, so if that's the case then maybe they aren't at odds with each other. The hemagglutinin statements are most likely back by years of scientific findings.