Happy to share our new work on how phages escape bacterial immunity.
We show that a phage homing endonuclease drives segmental amplification of anti-defense genes, pointing to a versatile and rapid mode of adaptation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PhageSky #MicroSky
Dissecting the genetic determinants of bacterial DNA degradation by bacteriophage T5 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04...
@paulturnerlab.bsky.social and I wrote a perspective on the need and recently developed approaches to study individual virus traits in the most numerous viruses on our planet (phages).
Let's move beyond measuring the mean #phagesky
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#microsky #virology #microscopy
The PhageExpressionAtlas just made it to bioRxiv. Visually explore the transcriptomes of phage-host interactions or harness the database for analysis across infections! Please leave feedback, which functionalities/data you find missing.
Preprint:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#phagesky #microsky
Phage receptor prediction from genome sequencing alone. Bacterial receptor (blue) interacting with phage proteins (purple) is shown here
📣Huge preprint 🔔
Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.
How do you kill a MRSA superbug armed with 15 different anti-phage defense systems? You make a smarter phage. Check out our latest preprint on overcoming bacterial immunity using defense-guided engineering to build durable therapeutic phage cocktails! Led by Sarah Voss. doi.org/10.64898/202...
Engineered phages evade the complete defense repertoire of highly phage-resistant MRSA clinical isolates www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
Excited to share the first preprint from the lab! We show that ApeA defends against RNA phage infection by cleaving the phage genome:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Paper out: Profiling of lytic phage infection in individual B. fragilis cells with bacterial scRNA-seq. Congratulations Anika Gupta, Norma Morella, @monochamussutor.bsky.social Dmitry Sutormin et al, in collaboration with Georg Seelig (UW) and Neel Dey (Fred Hutch). www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cyclic tri-adenylate signalling by a Panoptes anti-phage guard system with a CARF-TM effector www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
A recipient-based anti-conjugation factor triggers an abortive mechanism by targeting the Type IV secretion system www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
Capturing dynamic phage–pathogen coevolution by clinical surveillance @nature.com @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Semirandom DNA adducts regulate a filamentous defence-associated reverse transcriptase www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
Structural and mechanistic insights into the dual-nuclease defense protein Upx as an anti-phage system | Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-70435-x
Our work on bacterial Schlafens in phage defense is out today @natmicrobiol.nature.com!
Check out the final version here:
rdcu.be/e7Bmz
We are looking for postdocs and students to expand our team! Official postings are coming soon.
Please reach out if you're interested!
#phage #phagesky #microsky
CBASS is a cyclic nucleotide-based antiviral system in bacteria that is related to cGAS-STING signaling in animals. One of the big questions is how CBASS is activated during phage infection? We made some progress on this during my final year in the Kranzusch lab.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268
Elegant study from @erinhuiting.bsky.social @jbdsf.bsky.social on CBASS phage inhibition without loss of cell viability. Especially interesting to see this phenotype with a CapV membrane-targeting effector and evidence for 3'3'-cGAMP transport!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/5
Happy by a recent biorxiv pre-print about DARNA (PD-T7-3) anti-phage defense system. This system is activated by binding to ssDNA, presented by phage SSB, to cleave tRNA in the anti-codon loop.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
New preprint on Detectrons from @jihoon-han.bsky.social! These are programmable biosensors for RNA that produce DNA barcodes in the presence of their target RNA. Check out Jihoon's quoted thread and the preprint for more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We found a new mode by which bacteria deplete NAD+ to protect from phages. And then we found how phages overcome this defense
Discovered by talented biochemist Dr Ilya Osterman, read the preprint: tinyurl.com/Narp-ap
A thread 🧵
Preprint out: We characterise PUA-Cal-HAD, a widespread bacterial antiphage defence family. An infection cue switches a preassembled complex into an immune filament that drains dNTPs via a coupled two-enzyme cascade, and phage DNA mimics can block filament assembly (anti-polymerisation).
Most plasmids described in E. coli are small compared to the megaplasmids we identified here! Check out the preprint if you want to learn about these mysterious large elements and their potential functions 🧬. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this in @banfieldlab.bsky.social
Our paper is out! Hiding in plain sight among Cas12a nucleases, Cas12a3 cleaves not its RNA target but the 3′ ends of tRNA. Huge thanks to all who made this possible, especially the Beisel lab, Biao & Dirk for the structure, & @sebastianglatt.bsky.social for all things tRNA. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
The EMBO Gold Medal 2025 was awarded to Tanmay Bharat and David Bikard: www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold... 🧪
At #CellBio2025, the EMBO Gold Medal was handed over to David Bikard in recognition of his pioneering work on #GeneEditing.
Structural basis of Retron-Eco8-mediated anti-phage defense www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12...
Online Now: The Ppl protein senses 3′-hydroxyl DNA overhangs and NTP depletion to halt phage infection Online now:
⭐ NAR Breakthrough! ⭐
🦠 New study shows phage X1 hijacks Yersinia's enterocolitica flagellum to inject its DNA directly into the cytosol. Yersinia, though, strikes back!
🦠 A fascinating look at the #dualrole of #flagella in #viralentry and #bacterialimmunity.
🧬 Read more: doi.org/10.1093/nar/...
Bacteriophage genome-wide transposon mutagenesis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11....
