Award-winning Illustration of Bacteriophage T4 Infection
Bacteriophage T4 Infection by RCSB PDB's David S. Goodsell was selected as the National Jury's Choice Award in the 2023 Wiki Science Competition (non-photographic media) in the United States.
At left, a bacteriophage is injecting its DNA genome into an E. coli cell. At center, the bacteriophage has taken over the cell, destroying the cellular DNA and forcing the cell to make many new copies of itself. At right, the bacteriophage produces a channel-forming protein that pierces the inner cell membrane, allowing breakdown of its peptidoglycan sheath. The cell bursts, releasing several hundred new bacteriophages.
Acknowledgement: Illustration by David S. Goodsell, RCSB Protein Data Bank and Scripps Research. doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/goodsell-gallery-048
