Abstract. Interactions between bacteria, bacteriophages, and their satellites are shaped by a myriad of defence and counter-defence mechanisms. Here, we id

Recent discoveries on bacterial immunity have revealed that several protein domains involved in anti-phage defense are conserved in eukaryotes, such as SIRim, TIR, PNP and gasdermin. Bacterial immune ...

The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.

The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

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

Shomar, Guillaume, et al. report the genomics-driven discovery of a family of more than 2,000 lanthipeptide biosynthetic gene clusters with anti-phage potential. They experimentally demonstrate anti-p...

Even with federal grants largely restored, scientists say the Trump administration is still preventing those funds from reaching them. The consequences, they say, are already becoming clear.

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...

L’Institut Pasteur vous ouvre ses portes et vous invite à une conférence scientifique pour le grand public, accompagnée d’une performance artistique ! Pascale Cossart parlera de virus et de bactéries,...

Phage genome engineering methods accelerate the study of phage biology, the discovery of new functions, and the development of innovative genetic engineering tools. Here, we present QuickPhage, a rapi...

Bacteria and archaea encode on average ten antiphage systems. Quorum sensing, cellular, or transcription factors can regulate specific systems (CRISPR-Cas, CBASS). Yet, a systematic assessment of anti...

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...

Bacterial flagella drive motility and chemotaxis while also playing critical roles in host-pathogen interactions, as their oligomeric subunit, flagellin, is specifically recognized by the mammalian im...

Human Schlafen proteins restrict viral replication by cleaving tRNA, thereby suppressing protein synthesis. Although the ribonuclease domain of Schlafen proteins is conserved across all domains of lif...

What if the study of bacteria could illuminate our understanding of human immunity? In recent years, scientists have been exploring unexpected links between human proteins involved in the body’s defen...

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Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...

Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 27 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01156-zIn this Review, Penadés et al. explore the genetics, potential origins and life cycle of phage satellites, and they discuss the impact of these elements on the evolution of other mobile genetic elements and their host bacteria.

Bacteria defend themselves from viral predation using diverse immune systems, many of which sense and target foreign DNA for degradation. Defense-associated reverse transcriptase (DRT) systems provide...

On this site, you can freely use (without any login) the DefenseFinder webservice (see below) and get help to navigate the ever expanding world of defense systems.There is a collaborative knowledge ba...

Transfer RNA molecules have been recently recognized as widespread targets of bacterial immune systems. Translation inhibition through tRNA cleavage or modification inhibits phage propagation, thereby...

The Institut Pasteur, a research organization which for more than 130 years has been committed to tackling infectious diseases, sharing knowledge and defending science, has decided to leave X because ...

Abstract. The co-evolution of prokaryotes, phages and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) has driven the diversification of defense and anti-defense systems ali

Avs proteins are bacterial anti-phage pattern recognition receptors evolutionarily related to eukaryotic NLRs. Here, Béchon et al show that a single bacterial Avs can recognize different phage protein...

Restriction-modification (R-M) systems, present in most bacterial genomes, protect against phage infection by detecting and degrading invading foreign DNA. However, like many prokaryotic anti-phage sy...