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Bacteria in the genus Streptomyces are found ubiquitously in nature and are known for the number and diversity of specialized metabolites they produce, as well as their complex developmental lifecycle. Studies of the viruses that prey on Streptomyces, known as phages, have aided the development of tools for genetic manipulation of these bacteria, as well as contributing to a deeper understanding of Streptomyces and their behaviours in the environment. Here, we present the genomic and biological characterization of twelve Streptomyces phages. Genome analyses reveal that these phages are closely related genetically, while experimental approaches show that they have broad overlapping host ranges, infect early in the Streptomyces lifecycle, and induce secondary metabolite production and sporulation in some Streptomyces species. This work expands the group of characterized Streptomyces phages and improves our understanding of Streptomyces phage-host dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motif of the mortal-spectral threshold runs through the practice of Singapore-based artist, Zarina Muhammad. Born Malay-Muslim, she identifies as a queer animist: her body of work is oriented around notions of the interstitial spaces that exist between the living and the otherworldly in Southeast Asian traditions, incorporating elements of ritual, magic, and the supernatural, poised in the discursive space between animist belief and monotheistic orthodoxy. It is the concept of spectrality, as an organizing metaphor, that provides the primary framework within which her installations and moving images are deciphered. Here, the ghostly and incorporeal are as much synonyms for the sphere of the spiritual and paranormal, as they are analogies for the socially other-ed and systematically marginalized, excluded by dominant ideologies and systems. In the context of the heteronormative, technocratic order and orthodox Islamic lifeworld of twenty-first century Singapore, Zarina's intersecting identities as a queer, Malay-Muslim woman are read as apparitions of alterity, haunting the margins of hegemonic structures. The liminal site of the threshold signifies the spectral realms invoked in her work, and ultimately serves to metaphorize broader socio-cultural realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]