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Science 22 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5525, pp. 2263 - 2264
DOI: 10.1126/science.1062957
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Perspectives

MICROBIOLOGY:
The Great Escape

Graham F. Hatfull

How do bacteriophages (viruses that parasitize bacteria) escape from their bacterial hosts once they have replicated? In a Perspective, Hatfull discusses new work (Bernhardt et al.), which reveals that certain bacteriophages are able to block enzymes that synthesize precursors of murein, a crucial component of the bacterial wall. Weaknesses in the bacterial wall due to the murein deficit result in lysis of the bacteria and release of phage progeny.

The author is in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15241, USA. E-mail: gfh{at}pitt.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)