[OrthoMetaPara]

> The researchers think the virus uses latrotoxin to enter animal cells and reach the bacteria that it targets.

How would it do that? The phage can't synthesize latrotoxin itself, so it would need to instruct its bacterial host to produce it. Can bacteria even produce this toxin properly, with all proper post-translational modifications?

Secondly, how is it even obtaining the spider DNA when it infects the bacteria. I've heard of viruses packing extra nucleic acid from their hosts into their particulate forms when they replicate, but how does the spider DNA get into the bacteria so that this can happen?

[theparanoid]

Post translationally processing is done by the eukaryotic host cell. The section "Toxin activation by eukaryotic furin cleavage" has details - http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13155.