Interior view of the P22 Bacteriophage

Interior view of the P22 Bacteriophage

The pressure-sensing mechanism of bacteriophage P22 that signals when the phage head is full, viewed from the interior. The portal complex (red) is hypothesized to change conformation when the virus is full of DNA (green), which signals the packaging motors to stop. Such a sensor may serve as a drug target in human viruses.

Graham Johnson, Gabriel Lander