Viral-induced DNA damage triggers both eukaryotic and prokaryotic innate immunity. Here, we report that self-DNA ends generated routinely during normal termination of bacterial replication suffice to ...

Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 02 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41579-026-01376-xBacteria deploy diverse immune systems to counter phage infection, yet how these systems sense invasion remains incompletely understood. This Review categorizes phage-derived triggers and outlines emerging principles that govern immune recognition of phage infection.

Cyclic oligonucleotide–based antiphage signaling systems (CBASS) are bacterial immune pathways evolutionarily related to cGAS-STING (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase–stimulator of interferon genes) in humans. ...

TRAM is a regulator of myddosome assembly through dissociating MyD88 from the TLR–TIRAP complex to enable myddosome maturation and durable downstream signal transduction.

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

CRISPR-Cas provides RNA-mediated adaptive immunity, but how its first RNA-guided effector arose is unclear. In this study, we report the discovery of Viral Interference Programmable Repeat (VIPR) syst...

Scientists have discovered a powerful gene-targeting system in viruses. Billions of years old, VIPR seems to predate CRISPR and may be even more powerful.

During replisome assembly of monkeypox virus, the hexameric helicase–primase E5 undergoes large-scale conformational changes that allow two of its primase domains to interact with the polymerase F8 th...

Comb jellies are helping answer fundamental questions in biology, from how the earliest nervous systems evolved to how bioluminescence works.

Viruses are ubiquitous mobile genetic elements that are obligate symbionts of cellular life forms and replicate exclusively within host cells. The ...

The ciliary transition zone (TZ) regulates ciliary proteome composition, yet its molecular architecture, protein content, and contribution to motile ciliopathies remain poorly defined. We applied in situ cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging ...

Fattinger et al. reveal how an antiviral immune response impairs antibacterial immunity and causes tuberculosis susceptibility. Upon Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, strong, sustained type ...

Gabija acts early during phage infection, preventing phage genome circularization and replication. Phage DNA end-binding proteins prevent RecBCD loading onto linear DNA, and the absence of RecBCD lice...

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 ...

We treat viral antagonism as a discovery tool for host biology to reveal fundamental mechanisms of immune signaling and new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.

High-resolution maps and models of the bacterial ribosome provide new chemical insights into protein synthesis, and should enable the development of robust tools for cryo-EM structure modeling and ref...

CRISPR-associated transposons mediate RNA-guided DNA integration, but the molecular basis of transposase function remains poorly understood. Here, the authors uncover the mechanism of a highly active ...

Reviewers: J MacMicking (HHMI, Yale University) & S Silverman (Yale University) & K V Narvaez (Yale University) | 📗📗📗📗◻️ • T Nagy (University of Colorado Boulder) | 📗📗📗📗◻️ • J Pogliano (UC San Diego...

Biochemistry; Genetics; Molecular structure

Nature Reviews Immunology - Adaptive immunity is indispensable to vertebrates, yet most living organisms defend themselves perfectly well without it. Here, I ask why somatically diversified antigen...

This curated genome-resolved, metagenomic resource expands the known diversity of Nucleocytoviricota and Mirusviricota lineages.

Many bacterial immune defenses transmit recognition of phage infection via the generation of diverse cyclic nucleotide second messengers. Phage have evolved to subvert this kind of immunity by sequest...

Bacterial diadenylate cyclase (DAC) enzymes synthesize the nucleotide signal 3′3′ cyclic di-AMP (3′3′-c-di-AMP) to control osmoregulation, cell-wall homeostasis, and DNA-damage responses. Here we disc...

The Review describes shared ancient, conserved mechanisms between human antiviral immunity and bacterial anti-phage systems, outlining universal principles of pathogen sensing, signalling and effector...

DNA glycosylases, typically used for DNA repair, can also protect bacteria against phages that would otherwise evade host immunity by incorporating modified bases into their genomes.

The bacteriophage ΦX174 was the first genome to be sequenced and the first to be chemically synthesised. Here we present a complete map of the consequences of changing every nucleotide in the ΦX174 ge...

Systematic analysis of prokaryotic STAND NTPases — relatives of animal and plant immune receptors — uncovers diverse antiviral sensors that detect most of the core structural and replicative proteins of bacteriophages.