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A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics

The Special Issue “DNA Packaging Dynamics of Bacteriophages” is focused on an event that is among the physically simplest known events with biological character. Thus, phage DNA (and RNA) packaging is used as a relatively accessible model for physical analysis of all biological events. A similar per...

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Autor principal: Serwer, Philip
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9324371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35887200
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23147854
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author Serwer, Philip
author_facet Serwer, Philip
author_sort Serwer, Philip
collection PubMed
description The Special Issue “DNA Packaging Dynamics of Bacteriophages” is focused on an event that is among the physically simplest known events with biological character. Thus, phage DNA (and RNA) packaging is used as a relatively accessible model for physical analysis of all biological events. A similar perspective motivated early phage-directed work, which was a major contributor to early molecular biology. However, analysis of DNA packaging encounters the limitation that phages vary in difficulty of observing various aspects of their packaging. If a difficult-to-access aspect arises while using a well-studied phage, a counterstrategy is to (1) look for and use phages that provide a better access “window” and (2) integrate multi-phage-accessed information with the help of chemistry and physics. The assumption is that all phages are characterized by the same evolution-derived themes, although with variations. Universal principles will emerge from the themes. A spin-off of using this strategy is the isolation and characterization of the diverse phages needed for biomedicine. Below, I give examples in the areas of infectious disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease.
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spelling pubmed-93243712022-07-27 A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics Serwer, Philip Int J Mol Sci Perspective The Special Issue “DNA Packaging Dynamics of Bacteriophages” is focused on an event that is among the physically simplest known events with biological character. Thus, phage DNA (and RNA) packaging is used as a relatively accessible model for physical analysis of all biological events. A similar perspective motivated early phage-directed work, which was a major contributor to early molecular biology. However, analysis of DNA packaging encounters the limitation that phages vary in difficulty of observing various aspects of their packaging. If a difficult-to-access aspect arises while using a well-studied phage, a counterstrategy is to (1) look for and use phages that provide a better access “window” and (2) integrate multi-phage-accessed information with the help of chemistry and physics. The assumption is that all phages are characterized by the same evolution-derived themes, although with variations. Universal principles will emerge from the themes. A spin-off of using this strategy is the isolation and characterization of the diverse phages needed for biomedicine. Below, I give examples in the areas of infectious disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. MDPI 2022-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9324371/ /pubmed/35887200 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23147854 Text en © 2022 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Perspective
Serwer, Philip
A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics
title A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics
title_full A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics
title_fullStr A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics
title_full_unstemmed A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics
title_short A Perspective on Studies of Phage DNA Packaging Dynamics
title_sort perspective on studies of phage dna packaging dynamics
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9324371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35887200
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23147854
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