Dr. Siân Owen, a Principal Investigator and Research Scientist at the Wadsworth Center, has been awarded a highly competitive five-year, $1.97 million Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) f...

Bacteria produce natural products to adapt to their environments, with phage interactions as major ecological and evolutionary drivers. While some nat…

YprA-family helicases represent a key hub in the prokaryotic defense network. Through phylogenetic analysis of YprA, Bell and colleagues identify a distinct class of defense systems, called ARMADA. ARMADA protects bacteria against diverse phages, synergizing with another defense system, Druantia III. ARMADA, Druantia III, and Zorya II co-occur in phage-like elements.

A better understanding of battles between bacteria and viruses could inspire new medicines

Bacteriophages are the most abundant life form on earth and can be applied to eliminate or engineer bacteria. Here, authors demonstrate RNA barcoding as a high throughput tool to measure bacteriophage...

Morgan et al. show that a phage-encoded protein functions as an antitoxin to counter DarTG2-mediated phage defense. They further explore the interplay between this anti-defense protein, the phage nucleus replication compartment, which encloses chimallivirus genomes, and the DarTG2 phage defense system.

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

Recognition of foreign molecules inside cells is critical for immunity in all domains of life. Proteins of the STAND NTPase superfamily, including eukaryotic nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain ...

Linked protease–effector modules are widespread in prokaryotic antiviral defense, yet the mechanisms of most remain poorly understood. Here we show that four of the most prevalent modules—metallo-β-la...

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 ...

Antiviral immune systems diversify by integrating new genes into existing pathways, creating new mechanisms of viral resistance. We identified genes encoding a predicted nuclease paired with a trypsin...