viral infection on bacterium

[yui_96]

So on my MCAT book, it says "infection with one strain of phage generally makes the bacterium less susceptible to superinfection (simultaneous infection) with other phages. because the provirus is relatively innocuous, there may be some evolutionary advantage to this association". Can someone explain why the incorporation of provirus makes a bacterium less susceptible to superinfection?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[JustinM88]

So on my MCAT book, it says "infection with one strain of phage generally makes the bacterium less susceptible to superinfection (simultaneous infection) with other phages. because the provirus is relatively innocuous, there may be some evolutionary advantage to this association". Can someone explain why the incorporation of provirus makes a bacterium less susceptible to superinfection?

Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever studied this question in particular, but...

upload images

The first couple of sentences of that paragraph there seem to be saying that the first provirus, as its integrated inside DNA, has a repressor that prevents Replication of other proviruses...
I still would like a better explanation though ><

It could be evolutionarily advantageous for the first provirus to fend away other viruses (so that it can hijack the bacterium’s machinery all for itself...)

I hope someone else has more insight on this one though as I believe I’ll be learning something here lol Or, is it beyond the scope of the MCAT?

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

The post above is correct. Repressors from pro-viruses basically hurt the chance that another, more angry virus can come along. In that way, the "safe," latent provirus can protect against other viruses and their possibly more destructive tendencies.

This is one of the reasons why when we look back into the DNA of bacteria, we can see multiple, historically incorporated pro-viruses; a timeline of these older, safer viruses give us insight into why the bacteria is still living, what it's been able to avoid in terms of enemies, etc.

 

[yui_96]

Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever studied this question in particular, but...

upload images

The first couple of sentences of that paragraph there seem to be saying that the first provirus, as its integrated inside DNA, has a repressor that prevents Replication of other proviruses...
I still would like a better explanation though ><

It could be evolutionarily advantageous for the first provirus to fend away other viruses (so that it can hijack the bacterium’s machinery all for itself...)

I hope someone else has more insight on this one though as I believe I’ll be learning something here lol Or, is it beyond the scope of the MCAT?

Gotcha. Surprised you actually went to check the literature ><

 

[JustinM88]

Gotcha. Surprised you actually went to check the literature ><

Was just a quick Google search and clicked the first link xD