T6S Defense Simulation (VIDEO)
Caption
The researchers found that the T6S system also has a potential role as a defensive weapon when cells with T6S attack other cells that also have it. While immune to their own secretion systems, the cells can kill each other. In the above simulation of two cells with T6S, the minority yellow cells invade the majority red cells. The cells begin to grow and attack at the same rate (top left), but as the attack rate increases (left to right, top to bottom) the red cells steadily gain a population advantage. Finally, the yellow cells are eliminated (bottom right), which suggests that T6S also is a defensive weapon.
Credit
Simulation by David Borenstein, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
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