Phage-encoded homing endonucleases attenuate bacterial immunity
Mahata, T.; Kanarek, K.; Ragavan, R. M.; Haldar, A.; Shur, G.; Yehia, R.; Burstein, D.; Haitin, Y.; Qimron, U.; Salomon, D.
Show abstract
The arms race between bacteria and bacteriophages (phages) gave rise to multiple layers of antagonistic mechanisms, many of which remain unexplored. Here, we investigated the anti-phage defense system GAPS4 and showed that it is a non-selective DNase triggered by sensing DNA breaks. We further demonstrated that this activation mechanism renders GAPS4 a double-edged sword, sensitizing bacteria to various forms of antibacterial antagonism. Using comparative genomics, we found that phage-encoded homing endonucleases, long considered selfish mobile genetic elements, enhance phage fitness by attenuating GAPS4-mediated immunity. Our findings shed light on the evolutionary advantage provided by these ubiquitous mobile elements to their host phages, and on the intricate evolutionary cross-talk between bacteria and their predators.
Matching journals
The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Parallel genomics uncover novel enterococcal-bacteriophage interactions 96%
- A stargate mechanism of Microviridae genome delivery unveiled by cryogenic electron tomography 96%
- Evolutionary and functional divergence of Sfx, a plasmid-encoded H-NS homolog, underlies the regulation of IncX plasmid conjugation 95%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Dominant Vibrio cholerae phage exhibits lysis inhibition sensitive to disruption by a defensive phage satellite 97%
- A biofilm-tropic Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage uses the exopolysaccharide Psl as receptor 96%
- Phage resistance profiling identifies new genes required for biogenesis and modification of the corynebacterial cell envelope 96%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.