University of Bayreuth: Our liveable campus university offers innovative, interdisciplinary degree programmes and good career opportunities.

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

CRISPR–Cas systems transcriptionally tune diverse innate defences using CRISPR RNA-like guides to balance antiviral protection with fitness, and hyperactivate these defences when compromised, establis...

The roles of water molecules in transcription have long been overlooked due to resolution limitations. Li et al. resolve high-resolution cryo-EM structures of RNA polymerase II and visualize previously undetected water molecules. These waters play essential roles in RNA polymerase II catalysis and in mediating interactions within the transcription machinery.

In Mueller et al. the authors capture and visualize the native enzyme-substrate (Michaelis) and product complexes of nucleotide addition by bacterial RNA polymerase. Substrate coordination in a transition-state-like conformation, together with highly coordinated water molecules, suggests a positional (entropic) catalytic mechanism involving specific acid-base chemistry.

No description available

Many bacterial defense systems restrict phage infection by breaking down the molecule nicotinamide (Nam) adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) into adenosine di…

A functional screen reveals phage sponge proteins that bind Pycsar, Thoeris and CBASS signalling molecules to inhibit bacterial immunity.

Highly conserved mRNA 3′ UTRs act as co-translational chaperones for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), preventing inter-domain misfolding and enabling biogenesis of fully active proteins.

Bacteria encode numerous stress-response pathways that protect their hosts against both internal and external threats. A key question is how these pathways are regulated, especially anti-phage immune ...

Locked in a constant arms race, bacteria and their phage predators have evolved various defenses and counter-defenses. Compared to the numerous identified defenses, phage-encoded counter-defenses are ...

If the thought of ‘working’ a room packed with strangers fills you with dread, academic careers coach Caroline Dunne has some advice.

The life cycle of temperate bacteriophages involves lytic or lysogenic cycles and has historically served as a model for studying genetic regulation. This Review provides an updated overview of these ...

Jumbo phages are bacterial viruses with large genomes, oversized icosahedral capsids and complex tail architectures. Here, the authors use cryo-EM to provide a detailed structural analysis of jumbo ph...

In Mueller et al. the authors capture and visualize the native enzyme-substrate (Michaelis) and product complexes of nucleotide addition by bacterial RNA polymerase. Substrate coordination in a transition-state-like conformation, together with highly coordinated water molecules, suggests a positional (entropic) catalytic mechanism involving specific acid-base chemistry.

The roles of water molecules in transcription have long been overlooked due to resolution limitations. Li et al. resolve high-resolution cryo-EM structures of RNA polymerase II and visualize previously undetected water molecules. These waters play essential roles in RNA polymerase II catalysis and in mediating interactions within the transcription machinery.

Antiphage defense systems protect bacteria from viral infection and have inspired important biotechnologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 while also revealing the evolutionary roots of eukaryotic innate immunit...

Bacteriophages are promising alternatives to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections. However, bacteria possess immune systems that neutralize bacteriophages. Zang et al. discover small molecule...

The widespread prokaryotic immune systems, in particular restriction–modification, CRISPR–Cas and defensive toxin–antitoxin systems, are absent in eukaryotes, whereas relatively rare ones, such as Arg...

Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) employ diverse and distinctive mechanisms of cDNA synthesis to protect bacteria against viral infection. However, much of DRT family diversity remains ...

Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...

After sensing capsids, the Thoeris antiphage defense system triggers a cascade that leads to NAD+ cleavage and cell arrest, which are dynamics that are mirrored in some mammalian immune pathways.