How the Zergs were Made

Chapter 5: Toxic phage

   From the beginning of resuming thinking, Huogu is at a disadvantage, because single-cell clusters do not have ‘vision’ and are very passive.

  Only when those foreign cells come into contact with a single cell cluster, Huogu can learn of the other's existence.

  If it were the original human body, even if there is no vision, you can use the neural network of the skin to feel the direction of liquid flow to judge the objects around you.

  The problem is that the single-cell cluster that Huogu currently hosts is too crude, so this kind of thing is also difficult to do.

  To resist those external threats, Huogu can only resort to passive defense, and the key to this passive defense lies in the cell wall.

   "The main attack method of bacteriophages is infection, and then the dove occupy the nest, in the parasitic cells, copy a large number of their own daughters, after reaching a certain number, in various ways, destroy the cell membrane and cell wall from the inside out..."

   "So... the key to defending against this kind of enemy is that in the initial infection stage, as long as this link is destroyed, those guys will temporarily take me out of it."

   So, a question posed in front of Huogu-what method should it use to destroy the infection stage of the phage?

   The key to the defense against phage lies in the cell wall. However, this is just Huo Gu's idea. I haven't figured out the specific details yet.

   "The mild bacteriophage was in the form of injection, bypassing the cell membrane responsible for defense, and implanting its own genes into single cells..."

   "If the cell wall is thick enough and the gap is small enough, only small molecular clusters are allowed to enter and exit, um, in this case, it can be a good defense."

   With a general direction, it was much faster to add details. Huogu did not consume much energy to finalize the trip of the cell wall.

   Suddenly, Huo Gu thought of something.

   "Wait! If, like some influenza viruses, they deliberately destroy their own protein coat and directly deliver gene fragments, bypassing the small molecular gaps in the cell wall..."

   "Only the specialization type can achieve the maximum effect. If the cell wall has the function of screening, then the protective effect will be..."

   Huogu's attention gradually shifted to the position of the cell membrane.

   "The screening function is left to the cell membrane to complete, and the defense work is left to the cell wall to complete."

   "If the cell wall can be broken through, the defense of the cell membrane will not play a big role. After all, the ‘comprehensive’ type is not as effective as the ‘specialized’ type.”

   For a better comparison, Huogu untwisted and replicated that part of the phage protein empty shell gene in the gene chain.

   After a while, the empty shell of the phage protein appeared in front of Huo Gu.

"This one…"

   When seeing the empty protein shell of the bacteriophage, Huo Gu had a hard time.

   With a physical comparison, it discovered that the bacteriophage is very small. If the single cell used as the host is a high-rise building, the bacteriophage is the size of a human or a pet dog.

   This is indeed very different from what it thinks.

   "In other words, the opening of the cell wall must be designed to the extent that only a single small molecule can pass through in order to block the phage?"

   At this moment, another unexpected visitor met with the single-cell cluster.

   As Huogu worried, the killer of the microbial world is a phage, and this time, God does not intend to continue to care for Huogu and this single-cell cluster.

   After the gene fragment invaded the outermost single cell, the phage immediately declared sovereignty over the parasitic cell, transcribed its own genes frantically, and produced a large number of phage genes and those protein coats.

   Obviously, this is a virulent bacteriophage.

   "Damn it!"

   Huogu almost didn't yell at him. The parasite is a single cell connected by a protein structure, which means that it is impossible to separate from the entire cell cluster immediately like last time.

   did not dare to hesitate too much, Huogu immediately ordered the cells to divide and separate the infected single cells.

   It is not the single cell directly docking with the parasitic cell that divides, but the cell at the edge of the entire area centered on that parasitic cell.

This is done just in case, the speed of individual separation in a single-cell cluster is the speed of single-cell replication. If the single-cell self-replication speed cannot keep up with the speed at which the group of phage breaks the parasitic cells, then the docked cells cannot be divided and isolated. It is meaningless behavior.

  The result of the failure of separation is that there will be a large area, or even the entire single cell cluster, will be infected.

   Huogu can't afford to take this risk.

  The development of the situation, as Huogu feared, was even worse. Those virulent phages had broken through the cell membranes of parasitic cells and infected other cells faster than expected.

   At this time, the unwinding and division of single cells is only halfway through.

   Huogu's heart was suspended, and his attention was focused on the dividing cells. U U Reading www.uukanshu.com

   In his opinion, the single cells that divide at a reasonable speed now seem to be slow to the tortoise speed.

   "Hurry up...Hurry up...Hurry up..."

   Attention repeatedly moved between the cells and the phage, and Huogu unknowingly was already urging the single cells that were dividing.

   Time just passed by minute by minute.

I don’t know if it’s this kind of broken thoughts that really had a certain degree of effect, or was it just a coincidence, the single cell that was dividing, the single cell was the first to complete the division, and the whole single cell area was given to Separate and throw away in the vast darkness to avoid the second large-scale infection of virulent phage.

   "You can't let this happen again, you must complete the cell wall debugging as soon as possible."

   Hogu, who has experienced this toxic phage crisis, has lingering fears, but at the same time, he is more eager to complete the cell wall that can resist phage.

   After supplementing the missing part of the single-cell cluster, Huogu started to make the cell wall.

  The thickness of the cell wall is not a problem. As long as the cell wall is made multiple times, a superimposed effect can be formed to increase the thickness of the cell wall.

   The problem that plagues Hogu now is the permeability of the cell wall. This accidentally obtained cell wall, the tunnel through which the substance interacts, can accommodate several phages in and out.

   Obviously, this tunnel is too big, and the unexpectedly obtained cell wall cannot resist the phages.

   If it is a single one, it can be resisted as long as it does not enter the tunnel, but if it is faced with a cluster of phages, it is almost inevitable that phages will enter this tunnel.

   "You must think of a way to shrink this tunnel."