by Merry Youle — Phage pre­da­tion on bac­te­ria is in­tense, but bac­te­ria are not de­fense­less sit­ting ducks. They make use of a reper­toire of di­verse strate­gies to stay even with even the wil­i­est of phages. First line de­fenses are those that block phage en­try at the door. Of­ten these in­volve mod­i­fy­ing a sur­face com­po­nent…