Viruses (including phages) depend on the protein production of the host cell. If the host cell codes proteins differently, the proteins that the virus “wants” to produce don’t get produced.
While we still don’t know a lot about phages, I think it’s likely that phages are a key part of why we have the biodiversity of bacteria in the ocean and other environments that we have. The more of a given bacteria exist, the easier it is for phages to keep the populations of that bacteria down.
If someone would take a bacteria from the ocean where the population is currently limited by phages, modifying it to change its coding and thus not express the phages that currently target it might massively increase the population of that bacteria.
Viruses (including phages) depend on the protein production of the host cell. If the host cell codes proteins differently, the proteins that the virus “wants” to produce don’t get produced.
While we still don’t know a lot about phages, I think it’s likely that phages are a key part of why we have the biodiversity of bacteria in the ocean and other environments that we have. The more of a given bacteria exist, the easier it is for phages to keep the populations of that bacteria down.
If someone would take a bacteria from the ocean where the population is currently limited by phages, modifying it to change its coding and thus not express the phages that currently target it might massively increase the population of that bacteria.