SnapShot: Bacterial Immunity
@Nitzan_T masterfully organized current knowledge on bacterial immune systems into a single page graphics
Out today @CellCellPress : cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
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Bacterial origins of human innate immune mechanisms
Tanita Wein skillfully summarized current knowledge on how key components our own immune system evolved from bacterial anti-phage defenses
Out today in Nature Reviews Immunology rdcu.be/cKWrz
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Preprint: We report the discovery of >20 new bacterial defense systems! Some with homology to human immune genes
A 4-year effort of the entire Sorek Lab, led by talented @AdiMillman, @Curiousphage, Azita Leavitt, @shany_doron and many more
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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After more than three decades of mystery, we are happy to report that we discovered the function of some of the coolest bacterial elements - retrons.
Retrons function as anti-phage defense systems!
See our new preprint biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor…
@AdiMillman @AudeBer @AAvihail
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On the origin of immunity
Remarkable similarities between human and bacterial immune systems.
Cyclic GMP–AMP signalling protects bacteria against viral infection
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
Congrats CBASS team! Daniel Cohen @AdiMillman @GilAmitai @shany_doron #cGAS-#STING
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Happy to see our paper out @nature:
Phages confiscate signaling molecules produced by immune TIR proteins to cancel host immunity
Structure of anti-defense "sponge" protein reveals a new class of antiviral signaling molecules: glycocyclic-ADPR (gcADPR)
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Happy to share our paper out today @nature:
TIR domains in bacteria protect from viruses by producing unique signaling molecules
A surprising parallel between bacterial and plant immunity
Congrats @gaofir, @GilAmitai and coauthors!
tinyurl.com/TirOfir
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Our paper out today @nature: phages reconstitute NAD+ to counter bacterial immunity
Phaged invented a new biochemical pathway for NAD+ synthesis - including previously unknown enzymatic reactions - to evade bacterial defenses
Congrats @IlyaOsterman!
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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If Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a microbiologist...
Best farewell gift ever, from @Curiousphage
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New in Nature: The evolutionary origin of the human STING protein is the bacterial CBASS anti-phage system.
"STING cyclic dinucleotide sensing originated in bacteria"
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Happy to see our paper out @nature today: A bacterial immune system conjugates ubiquitin-like proteins to phage tails. This generates non-infective virions
Congrats @Jens_Hoer & @ShaLGW!
Link to paper:
tinyurl.com/Isg15
Read the thread:
ALT Immuno-gold labeling of the ubiquitin-like protein conjugated to the phage tail
Proud to share our latest discovery: Bacteria conjugate ubiquitin-like proteins to interfere with phage assembly
A new concept in antiphage immunity, and a mechanism for ISG15-like antiviral defnese in bacteria. Big congrats to talented @Jens_Hoer!
A 🧵
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Out @CellCellPress: Together with the Kranzusch lab, we characterized RADAR, a giant immune machine that blocks viruses via adenine deamination
A complex of 96 protein subunits, 4 times heavier than the ribosome
Congrats @B_DuncanLowey and @Nitzan_T!
tinyurl.com/Trcfr
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A family of bacterial enzymes produce antiviral molecules to fight phage! These enzymes form the origin of Viperin, an important human antiviral gene.
Check out our new paper:
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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These kind of discoveries remind us all why we fell in love with biology and decided to make it our profession
My favourite discovery ever has just come online. Can I please tell you about some seriously wacky molecular biology? The story starts with a reverse transcriptase that SOMEHOW defends bacteria from viruses.
(👇 I recommend sound ON for the video 🎹)
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Systematic discovery of phage determinants that trigger bacterial immunity
Super talented @AAvihail 💫studied ~200 phage mutants that escape numerous defense systems
Revealing key principles on how bacterial immune systems sense phage invasion🧫🧪
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Out today @cellhostmicrobe: An expanded arsenal of bacterial immune systems
Even if you previously read the preprint, don’t miss a major new result on the bacterial SEFIR domain, a homolog of human immune domains
A thread 🧵 1/9
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
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Abortive Infection: Bacterial Suicide as an Antiviral Immune Strategy
annualreviews.org/doi/10.114…
Comprehensive review by @AnnaLopatina5 and @Nitzan_T
ALT Mechanisms of action of a selected set of phage abortive infection systems
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Proud to share our latest discovery: Bacteria conjugate ubiquitin-like proteins to interfere with phage assembly
A new concept in antiphage immunity, and a mechanism for ISG15-like antiviral defnese in bacteria. Big congrats to talented @Jens_Hoer!
A 🧵
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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We discovered a new immune signaling molecule: N7-cADPR
N7-cADPR is produced by phage-stimulated TIR proteins. It activates a bacterial caspase, which then degrades essential proteins to curb infection
Preprint: biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor…
Congrats @FrancoisRousset & @IlyaOsterman
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Now in Cell: Bacterial retrons function in anti-phage defense !
Excited to solve a decades-old mystery on the function of these RNA/DNA hybrid molecules
tinyurl.com/y4ccl3em
Congrats @AdiMillman @AudeBer @AAvihail !
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A link between bacterial and plant immune systems! TIR proteins protect from phage by generating signaling molecules that trigger cell death
Similar molecule (cADPR variant) is produced by plant TIRs in response to pathogens
Our paper: tinyurl.com/yxs5x8bg
Congrats @gaofir!
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Direct sequencing of proteins via nanopores? 🤯🤯🤯
nature.com/articles/s41587-0…
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Honored and humbled to receive the Max Planck Humboldt Research Award for 2023. Thank you to the Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society for this honor! Excited towards collaborating with @JoergLab at @Helmholtz_HIRI and @v_hornung in LMU Munich
mpg.de/20827644/max-planck-h…
Glückwunsch an den Mikrobiologen Rotem Sorek zum Max-Planck-Humboldt-Forschungspreis 2023! 👏🎉 Die Max-Planck-Humboldt-Medaillen erhalten Amy Buck und Kandice Tanner. @maxplanckpress @SorekLab @WeizmannScience
humboldt-foundation.de/entde…
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The first symposium on the "beyond CRISPR" immune system of bacteria: Registration open!
Feb 28th-Mar 2nd at the Weizmann Institute, Israel
A fantastic line up of speakers + talks selected from abstracts. We have limited space, hurry up and register!
weizmann.ac.il/conferences/S…
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Our new paper is out in Nature Microbiology:
Diversity and classification of cyclic-oligonucleotide-based anti-phage signalling systems
nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
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Pyroptosis is conserved between human and bacteria: caspase-activated gasdermins form pores and protect bacteria from phage
Fantastic collaboration with the Kranzusch lab, now out in @ScienceMagazine
Congrats @TanaWein & @algejohn !
science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126…
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Systematic discovery of antiphage defense systems in the microbial pangenome
science.sciencemag.org/conte…
or 10 new ways a bacteria defends itself #newpaper
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New defense system alert!
Pycsar: Pyrimidine Cyclase System for Antiphage Resistance
cCMP and cUMP are new immune signaling molecules!
Congrats @Nitzan_T & @morehouse_ben! A fantastic collaboration with the Kranzusch lab
tinyurl.com/cUMP12
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Tricking phages with reverse transcription
@IlyaOsterman summarized the beautiful discoveries from the labs of @SternbergLab and @zhangf, who showed how bacteria defend against phages by expressing a protein that is not really encoded in their DNA
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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I can't wait for the 2024 symposium on the "beyond CRISPR" immune system of bacteria, which will take place in Boston on April 16-18, 2024. Save the date!
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Thank you to the HFSP Nakasone award, this is a great honor.
Stoked and humbled to be included in the same list as the amazing scientists who received this award in the past
hfsp.org/awardees/hfsp-nakas…
And the winner of the 2023 HFSP Nakasone Award is... Rotem Sorek! We are honored to praise one of the top researchers in the Immunology field. Congratulations
@SorekLab
!
@WeizmannScience
#HFSPNakasoneAward2023 #RotemSorek #HFSP
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Published today @NatureComms
We discovered a bacterial NLR-like pattern recognition receptor that can sense 3 different viral proteins as a signature for infection. This explains its broad defense against different phage families
Congrats @nath_bechon!
nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
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News on the Zorya defense system: anchors to the peptidoglycan and detects membrane disruption by phage. It has a flagella-motor-like device that rotates once activated. So cool! I've been waiting for insights on Zorya since we first described it 5 years ago. Congrats Tylor&co!
Structure and mechanism of Zorya anti-phage defense system dlvr.it/T0K6qd
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Immune NLR genes are conserved in bacteria and provide protection against phage. An incredible study.
These bacterial NLRs recognize PAMPs that are conserved between phages and herpes viruses!
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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Thank you @theNASciences 🙏
It is an immense honor to be included in the same list as the giants in microbiology who received the Selman A. Waksman Award
We are honoring Rotem Sorek of @WeizmannScience with the 2025 Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology for groundbreaking discoveries on the immune system of bacteria. Congratulations! Learn about his research: nasonline.org/award/selman-a… #NASaward #microbiology
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Forget Illustrator. This is the best rendition of the arbitrium communication system ever! Beautiful farewell gift made by @erez_zohar #bioart (we'll miss you!)
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Antiviral defense via nucleotide depletion in bacteria
New defense proteins, dCTP deaminase and dGTPase, degrade nucleotides during infection, starving the phage & halting replication
Similar protein (SAMHD1) protects human from HIV
Congrats @Nitzan_T!
tinyurl.com/TalSorek
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Out now @Nature: our two joint papers with the amazing Kranzusch lab. We found how phages overcome the defense systems Gabija, Hachiman and Thoeris
Congrats @ErezTzvi, @sadie_antine, Azita Leavitt, @amitai_gil and coauthors
By analyzing groups of genomically similar phages that showed differential sensitivity to bacterial defense systems, we discovered two anti-Gabija genes (gad1 and gad2), an anti-Thoeris gene (tad2) and an anti-Hachiman gene (had1).
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Our paper out @CellCellPress: Structure-guided discovery of viral proteins that inhibit host immunity
Congrats @ErezTzvi, Azita Leavitt, @amitai_gil, our collaborators @ Kranzusch lab, and coauthors
A 🧵 1/10
cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092…
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CARD domains in bacteria!
CARD domains are essential for recruitment of caspases during inflammasome activation and gasdermin-mediated pyroptosis in humans. We now found that CARD domains mediate anti-phage defense in bacterial gasdermin systems
Congrats @TanaWein & @algejohn!
I am beyond excited to share our new preprint!🤩
We find that CARD domains are an ancient component of innate immune systems conserved from bacteria to human, and that they are essential for gasdermin-mediated defense in bacteria!
@SorekLab Kranzusch lab
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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We describe a new family of immune protein domains that break ATP to abort viral infection
They protect bacteria against phages and also likely function in animal immunity
Found in CBASS/NLR/pAgo, plus a new system: Detocs
Congrats @FrancoisRousset!
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Widespread Utilization of Peptide Communication in Phages Infecting Soil and Pathogenic Bacteria
cell.com/cell-host-microbe/f…
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Our paper out today @NatureMicrobiol:
Sirtuin (SIR2) domains in bacteria function in many anti-phage defense systems
These domains degrade NAD+ once phage is sensed, depleting the cell of energy and halting phage replication
OUT NOW👉Multiple phage resistance systems inhibit infection via SIR2-dependent NAD+ depletion
A work by Sorek and colleagues @SorekLab
@GarbJeremy
nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
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Was honored and moved by the heartwarming ceremony in Berlin yesterday. Thank you to the Max Planck Society and the Humboldt Foundation! More than ever I am convinced that science is the strongest universal bridge to connect people and cultures
Congratulations Amy Buck, Rotem Sorek, Kandice Tanner for receiving the Max Planck Humboldt Research Award 2023 yesterday in Berlin!
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Our paper out @Nature: CARD domains mediate anti-phage defense in bacterial gasdermin systems
CARDs are essential for caspase recruitment in inflammasome activation. We now find them in bacterial immune systems
Congrats @TanaWein! Thanks Kranzusch lab!
tinyurl.com/CA88DD
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Mechanism of the Hachiman immune system finally deciphered
A beautiful study from the Doudna lab shows that Hachiman is a genome integrity sensor
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
Congrats @doudna_lab and colleagues!
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Streamlining standard bacteriophage methods for higher throughput
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
Tried and tested! Some great protocols by @k6logc from Polz Lab
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Nice coverage of the "behind the scenes " - how we came to discover that Retrons are defense systems:
sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/…
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Now published @ScienceMagazine: TIR signaling activates caspase-like immunity in bacteria
We report a new immune molecule: N7-cADPR. Produced by phage-induced TIRs and activates a defensive bacterial caspase
Congrats @FrancoisRousset & @IlyaOsterman!
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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A new class of immune signaling molecules generated by TIR domains: histidine conjugated to ADP-ribose
Check out our preprint: tinyurl.com/hisADP
A fantastic collaboration with the Tamulaitiene and Kranzusch labs
A 🧵 1/9
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Preprint: Phages reconstitute NAD+ to counter bacterial immunity
tinyurl.com/NADPD
Many bacterial immune systems degrade NAD+ to deplete the cell of energy, halting phage replication
Ilya Osterman now discovered that phages can rebuild NAD and overcome defense
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Nice piece in Nature discussing our work on communication between phages:
"The secret social lives of viruses" nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
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Ever tried crossbreeding your phages? Check out our new study by @GarbJeremy :
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
Phage mating helped us solve the mechanism of defense-associated sirtuins (DSR) – a large family of anti-phage defense systems
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Anti-CBASS and anti-Pycsar!
Our colleagues Sam Hobbs and Philip Kranzusch discovered phage-produced enzymes that inhibit bacterial immunity
Phage enzymes degrade cyclic nucleotide signaling molecules
Incredible biochemistry & structural biology feat!
tinyurl.com/Acbass
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Many phages are known to encode tRNAs of their own. Now Isaev, Wiedenhaft, Bikard and co show that these tRNAs enable phages to evade bacterial defense systems. A beautiful story, showing that the PARIS defense system cleaves host tRNAs when it detects infection. Congrats!
Why do phages encode tRNAs? It aids in defeating tRNA-targeting immune systems. We provide structure and mechanism for the PARIS defense and show how it cleaves host tRNA upon trigger sensing. Stikingly, the non-cleavable tRNA of T5 supports the infection. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Out today @CellCellPress: a new family of immune proteins that deplete the cell of ATP and dATP when viral infection is recognized
This immune mechanism is conserved from bacteria to animals
Congratulations @FrancoisRousset !
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A hypothesis to explain why phages so frequently carry tRNAs of their own. Very interesting, makes a lot of sense
We just posted a preprint proposing a new role for the 50-year old conundrum of phage-encoded tRNAs: insensitivity to host tRNA depletion by anticodon nucleases (e.g. VapC). Great data analysis and hypothesis building by @DaanFvdBerg
researchsquare.com/article/r…
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A recording of my recent lecture at the NIH, summarizing our current understanding on the immune system of bacteria: new mechanisms, evolutionary links to the human immune system, how phages fight back, and open questions
videocast.nih.gov/watch=4605…
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Can't wait for the first Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria, happening at the Weizmann Institute two weeks from now!
Looking forward to welcoming you all and hearing of exciting new discoveries in the field!
weizmann.ac.il/conferences/S…
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Registration for the 2024 Boston Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria is now open - an exciting program with a fantastic lineup of speakers! Additional talks will be selected from submitted abstracts
I can't wait for the 2024 symposium on the "beyond CRISPR" immune system of bacteria, which will take place in Boston on April 16-18, 2024. Save the date!
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New immune genes in humans are identified based on conservation with bacterial anti-phage defense systems! 🔥
Congrats @audeber and team for this important discovery!
In a new preprint, we report that recently discovered anti-phages systems (Mokosh, Eleos, Lamassu…) have eukaryotic homologs.
We harnessed this conservation to discover novel defense mechanisms in humans.
@howmanyernest1 @gaofir @EnzoZ_P @AudeBer
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Love this pic. The entire lab exploring and annotating new defense systems, in the "Defense 2.0 Blitz" week back in the summer of 2018. So many discoveries emerged from this session: CBASS, retrons, and now the recent addition of 21 new systems 🤩
Since these were way too many to test we had to prioritize. This is where the whole Sorek lab joined the effort and in the first "Sorek lab hackathon", helped analyze and select systems for verification.
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A bacterial immune system that specifically targets nucleus-forming phages. How cool!
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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A new retron-based method from the innovative @seth_shipman lab now allows making multiple mutations in a phage genome in a single, easy process - from point mutations to small insertions and deletions
Read the overview by @IlyaOsterman
nature.com/articles/s41587-0…
Multiplexed editing of phage genomes using retrons, now published at @NatureBiotech with lots of new bells and whistles. @ChloeFishman @katecrawdaddy @BhattaraiKline @Darshini_Poola @thekarenzhang @alex_gonzadel @matromont
nature.com/articles/s41587-0…
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A belated tweet: Our paper on how bacterial immune systems sense phage invaders was published last Friday @CellCellPress
Talented Avigail Stokar-Avihail, who masterfully led this study, explains it in the thread below
Congrats @AAvihail & coauthors!
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
I am excited to share with you the final version of my work @SorekLab studying
💠How bacterial immune systems sense phage infection💠
Published now in @CellCellPress🍻
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
See thread below for a recap and highlights added during the review process ⬇️
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The battle continues:
DISARM, a widespread bacterial defence system w/ broad anti-phage activities nature.com/articles/s41564-0… not just #CRISPR
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BiomX announces positive topline results from phase 1b/2a trial, testing phage cocktail against chronic infections in CF patients
Some patients, who suffered from P. aeruginosa infection for >10 years, tested negative for the bug after phage treatment
ir.biomx.com/news-events/pre…
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It is indeed an amazing anti phage defense system alright, but not CRISPR. This is a statue of Lamassu, the god protector of household in the Assyrian mythology. Lamassu is a family of defense systems present in ~10% of bacterial genomes, mechanism yet to be deciphered
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Contemporary Phage Biology: From Classic Models to New Insights
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
In depth review in @CellCellPress by @gaofir #phage
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Out today: Bacteria, like humans, manipulate the cellular nucleotide pool to curb viral infection
Originally posted in bioRxiv, now with new data @NatureMicrobiol
nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
Read the thread by Nitzan Tal, discoverer and leading author 💫
Excited to share the final version of our story on 🌟 how bacteria use nucleotide depletion to fight viral infection🌟, now @NatureMicrobiol!
A brief recap, what was added, and some thoughts below 🦠🤩
nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
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Phages inhibit bacterial TIR signaling using "sponge" proteins
Bonus: TIR-derived signaling molecule revealed!
tinyurl.com/gcADPR
A super fun collaboration with the Kranzusch lab! Congrats Azita Leavitt, @ErezTzvi, @amitai_gil, Allen Lu!
Super excited to share our new preprint, discovering an anti-Thoeris protein and an immune signaling molecule produced by both plants and bacteria! A super fun and productive collaboration with the @SorekLab and the Kranzusch lab.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Two beautiful papers determine the structure of the anti-plasmid defense system Wadjet
Structures explain how circular plasmid DNA is recognized and cleaved. Fascinating!
Congrats @Gruber_Lausanne
and @_KevinCorbett
nitter.app/iamamardeeep/status/15…
nitter.app/Gruber_Lausanne/status…
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Beautiful visualization of evolution of phage and host!
E. coli and T7 phage migrate, interact, and diversify in a spatially structured environment:
nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
@RoyKishony @TechnionLive @BiologyTechnion
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Multiple new classes of phage proteins that inhibit bacterial immunity:
Tad2 intercepts immune signals of defense TIR domains
Gad1 traps the Gabija defense system in a cage
And more...
Fun collaborations with the Kranzusch lab!
t.ly/NVEED
t.ly/yZyu
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The Weizmann symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria: abstract submission deadline is next week, Jan 10th!
Best abstracts will be selected for short talks
We also have a few remaining slots for registration
weizmann.ac.il/conferences/S…
The first symposium on the "beyond CRISPR" immune system of bacteria: Registration open!
Feb 28th-Mar 2nd at the Weizmann Institute, Israel
A fantastic line up of speakers + talks selected from abstracts. We have limited space, hurry up and register!
weizmann.ac.il/conferences/S…
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Interesting: The BREX protein BrxL is not a protease, despite sequence and structure homologies to Lon proteases
BREX was the first 'new' antiphage defense system discovered based on presence in defense islands, and its mechanism is still not understood
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Very interesting paper from the @edzewestra lab, showing that in conditions dictating longer phage replication cycles, cells are more likely to acquire CRISPR immunity. Relevant to many non-lab environments in which bacteria naturally grow slowly
Bacteriostatic antibiotics promote CRISPR-Cas immunity: @TatianaDimitriu @edzewestra find bacteriostatic #antibiotics promote #CRISPR-Cas immunity by slowing #phage replication. Delayed phage production allows cells to acquire spacers against phages cell.com/cell-host-microbe/f…
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Evolutionary necessity for immune innovation harnessed components of the bacterial flagellar motor into a wild defense system - Zorya
One of the most intriguing and sophisticated bacterial defense systems out there
Congratulations Nicholas Taylor and colleagues!
Very happy our paper on Zorya anti-phage defense system is now published in
@Nature! 🥳 Big congrats to first authors
@HaidaiHu and @__jphilipp and all other authors! Wonderful collab with @Salmo_Lab
and @SimonJacksonNZ #cryoEM @UCPH_CPR @koebenhavns_uni nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Wow! @AudeBer, @EnzoZ_P, @morehouse_ben and colleagues discover a new component in the human TLR immune pathway based on conservation with bacterial defense systems. Bacterial immunity reveals the secrets of human immunity!
From bacteria to human immunity!
On our quest to idendify eukaryotic homologs of antiphage systems, we discovered a family of SIR2 immune proteins widespread in eukaryotes.
We show that a human homolog, SIRanc, is a novel actor of the TLR pathway.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
🧵👇
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Finally, insight on the function of the Zorya immune system. A fascinating system sharing evolutionary origin with bacterial flagella. Have been waiting to learn more about this system for five years now, since we first reported it in our Doron 2018 paper
Exciting talk by our friend and colleague Nicholas Taylor @NMITaylorLab on the Zorya anti-phage defense system - bacterial immunity is truly a gateway to molecular biology from the dark side of the moon!
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Preprint: We studied defense islands in 1350 E coli genomes, involving >60 types of defense systems
The vast majority of defense systems are carried on mobile genetic elements, that integrate in dedicated genomic positions
Congrats @dinahoch!
tinyurl.com/ColiIsl
My turn! 🙋🏼♀️ Come read my FIRST first-author paper of my PhD @SorekLab, on the hot 🔥 topic of defence islands! 🏝
The defence island repertoire of the Escherichia coli pan-genome
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Just learned that the glyco-cyclic ADPR immune signaling molecules we discovered, 2’ cADPR and 3’ cADPR, are available as purified products at Biolog: biolog.de/news#news20230801
Very useful for researchers studying immune signaling in bacteria and plants
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Blurring the lines between plasmids and viruses
A plasmid from an Antarctic haloarchaeon uses specialized membrane vesicles to disseminate and infect plasmid-free cells
nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
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Save the date for the 2025 symposium on the immune system of bacteria: April 8-10 in Paris, France
Registration opens in two weeks. A fantastic lineup of speakers!
Join us in Paris on April 8th-10th for the 2025 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria 🥖🍷🦠🧬.
Excited to welcome these amazing speakers at @institutpasteur .
Registration will open beginning of November. Abstract deadline February 28. Stay tuned.
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Beautiful depiction of our current knowledge on the bacterial immune system - recommended reading!
So many novel antiphage systems out there! Hard to keep up with the pace of discoveries? We reviewed for @NatureRevMicro the highly diverse antiphage defence systems of bacteria; from molecular mechanisms to evolutionary drivers of such diversity.
rdcu.be/dg3ql
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Toxin-antitoxin database (type II recently updated )
How many TA pairs are in your favorite microbe? (probably not more than Microcystis aeruginosa)
bioinfo-mml.sjtu.edu.cn/TADB…
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Gasdermins, important players in human immunity, are also present in bacteria
As the human gasdermins, bacterial ones are activated by caspases to form membrane pores
Congrats @TanaWein @algejohn! Super fun collaboration with the Kranzusch lab
Preprint: tinyurl.com/bgsdms
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Fancy a postdoc in Munich? For a collaborative project between @SorekLab and @hornung_lab on antiviral innate immunity, we are looking for exceptional candidates with skills in immunology / biochemistry / computational biology. More details here:
genzentrum.uni-muenchen.de/c…
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In response to phage infection, bacterial gasdermins are activated to form membrane pores
Here is a time lapse microscopy of cells infected by phage T6. Gasdermin in these cells is fused to GFP. Activated gasdermins aggregate & perforate the membrane (pink is propodium iodide)
Studying the gasdermin system at the single-cell level in vivo we find that gasdermin is proteolytically cleaved during infection leading to gasdermin aggregation and membrane permeation.
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A eukaryotic-like ubiquitination machinery in bacteria! Beautiful structures from the Corbett lab.
This machinery defends bacteria against phage infection by targeting phage structural proteins and interfering with virion assembly
I'm thrilled to share the latest work from my lab, showing that a bacterial anti-phage immune system encodes a ubiquitination pathway strikingly similar to our own! biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… (1/12)
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Look who’s talking!
Discovery of numerous communication systems in a single bacterium-Paenibacilli are such social microbes!
@MayaVoichek shares her story in our lab’s first #preprint
Peptide-based quorum sensing systems in Paenibacillus polymyxa
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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A very important tool for anyone studying microbial genomes and phage-bacteria interactions!
A bit lost with all the new anti-phage systems out there? We developed DefenseFinder, a tool to detect all known anti-viral systems in bacterial genomes and conducted a large scale analysis on the anti-viral arsenal of prokaryotes. See more below ! (1/9) biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor…
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Registration is now open for the 2025 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria, taking place this year in Paris (April 8-10).
We have a fantastic lineup of speakers!
Register here: sisb2025.conferences-pasteur…
Join us in Paris on April 8th-10th for the 2025 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria 🥖🍷🦠🧬.
Excited to welcome these amazing speakers at @institutpasteur .
Registration will open beginning of November. Abstract deadline February 28. Stay tuned.
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Glad to be part of this important study!
Proud to share our new work @CellCellPress. We identified and experimentally validated #microbiome strains contributing to IBD flareups across geography (4 countries), and developed a first-of-its kind combination phage therapy
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
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Type II Lamassu defense system (also called DdmABC in V. cholerae) is triggered by DNA stem-loop hairpin structures
Structures are suggested to form during phage and plasmid replication from single-stranded or damaged DNA
Interesting preprint from the Mekalanos lab!
Cell density-dependent death triggered by viral palindromic DNA sequences biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor… #biorxiv_micrbio
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Exploring TASmania
TASmania: A bacterial Toxin-Antitoxin Systems database
journals.plos.org/ploscompbi… (Hatice Akarsu et al)
little genes, big impact
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Preprint: Human SARM1 can produce gADPR molecules as minor products
SARM1 is a conserved TIR-domain protein known as an NAD-degrading enzyme. We now show that it can also produce signal molecules. This might be important in human neurobiology. A 🧵 1/9
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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