Bacteria uses viral weapon against other bacteria

Bacterial cells use both a virus -- traditionally thought to be an enemy -- and a prehistoric viral protein to kill other bacteria that competes with it for food according to an international team of researchers who believe this has potential implications for future infectious disease treatment. The team, led by Thomas Wood, holder of the biotechnology endowed chair and professor of chemical engineering, Penn State, noticed a gap between two kinds of bacterial cells as they moved on agar plates toward each other, in a form of motility known as "swimming" where the bacterium moves by rotating its flagella. "It was kind of like when Alexander Fleming noticing bacteria did not grow near a fungus when he discovered penicillin in the 1920s," Wood said. "We then investigated and found the gap was caused by cells being killed by a virus, SW1, that was carried by only one of the strains."