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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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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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MDPI
2022
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9324371 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT serwerphilip aperspectiveonstudiesofphagednapackagingdynamics AT serwerphilip perspectiveonstudiesofphagednapackagingdynamics |