A protein produced especially by tailed phages that controls the timing of phage-infection lysis.
Holins are intimately involved in determining infection latent period length and mechanistically are responsible for allowing phage-produced endolysin to degrade the bacterial cell wall.
Holins are named after an ability to form "holes" in bacterial plasma membranes, thereby allowing endolysin to translocate from within the bacterial cytoplasm, where endolysis is produced, to the bacterial cell wall. Note all holins, however, function in precisely this manner.
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