Question

To infect a bacterial species, virions could be helped by binding to what feature of that species?

Answer 1

In this case, the bacteriophage will use the viral tail which is a fibrous protein that forms part of the virion fiber. The homologues structure for virus that infect eukaryotic cells are the spikes. However, the virus is attach or bind to specific receptors on the surface of the bacterial cell. These receptors can be lipopolysaccharides, teichoic acids or flagella.

So, the virus can attach and penetrate the bacterial cell in two ways, by using the viral tail to penetrate and by binding with the several surface receptors on the cell.