((( Latest Protein Spotlight issue: small sacrifice )))
September 2021
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Martyrdom is not particular to humans. It is inherent to microbes too.
A cell's answer to something which has gone dramatically wrong can be
to self-destruct. It is a common approach to irretrievable damage,
which cells frequently use. However, when suicide is chosen to save
harm spreading further, the act is akin to self-sacrifice. Take viral
infection for instance. When a virus finds its way into our body, our
immune system calls up different means to fight it off. As a result,
either essential components of the virus are successfully attacked and
muted, or infected cells are simply wiped out. Such defence strategies
are used across all kingdoms. In fact, living beings have devised
astonishingly creative and cunning ways of dealing with infection -
the most drastic of which is undoubtedly a form of suicide. The
bacterium Escherichia coli recently revealed an immune strategy it
uses, along with other microbes, which leads to its demise to save
infection spreading throughout the colony. The strategy termed CBASS,
for cyclic oligonucleotide-based antiphage signaling system,
interrupts viral replication while also killing the infected host for
good measure. One enzyme is at the very heart of this system, and its
name is cyclic GMP-AMP synthase.
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