Our story with @hobbslabutah.bsky.social discovering CBASS sensing of phage proteases out now in @science.org New data include CBASS recognition of diverse proteases beyond T4, and verifying CD-NTase activation loop cleavage as the trigger for defense in vivo www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Phage proteases activate CBASS antiphage immunity

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. ...

science.org

Kranzusch Lab@kranzuschlab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

After >10 years of our lab studying bacterial cGAS-like enzymes, @hobbslabutah.bsky.social finally reconstitutes viral sensing in vitro and discovers how these ancient receptors sense phage protease enzymes to detect virion assembly and activate antiviral immunity www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

ʙɪɴᴅᴄʀᴀꜰᴛ2 is out, and we're not waiting for the paper. The full code drops today, free for academic and industry use. We're releasing it early so you can start designing right now, and bring its full power to the current Adaptyv competition. github.com/PacesaLab/Bi...

Our paper on type II Panoptes is now published at PLOS Biology with new data on phage escapers - quite a step up in microbiology for our lab, led by Sabine Gruschow. Thanks to @erc.europa.eu for funding dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

🤩

François Rousset@francoisrousset.bsky.social · last mo.

By searching for NIR homologs, we actually realized that many defense systems encode NIR domains beyond Avs. Meet Vulcan and Vesta, two novel defense systems that trigger NAD+ depletion upon sensing distinct viral signals !

Amazing work by my colleagues!

François Rousset@francoisrousset.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨 We are excited to share the first preprint of our lab ! We discovered an NADase enzymatic domain in bacterial immunity and in the human protein TEP1. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Nobel Prize winner Ada Yonath sadly passed away today. She was a legend for her pioneering work on the structure of ribosomes.

1/5 How much phosphorylation can a single kinase deposit? In our new study with @typaslab.bsky.social out in @nature.com, phage T7's kinase (T7K) modifies almost all the E. coli proteome + more densely than all ~500 kinases do our own proteomes 🤯 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defences - Nature

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

nature.com

Today we are excited to introduce you to PanDA 🐼🐼🐼, a newly uncovered antiphage system!! Attendees at @SISB2026 would have heard a little about this from graduate student Ali Nabhani back in May, but we are now out here in preprint form and delighted to share more of the details. (Thread below)

Minimal diadenylate cyclases have been co-opted to detect phage immune evasion

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...

biorxiv.org

Minimal diadenylate cyclases have been co-opted to detect phage immune evasion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.743972v1

1/4 Every good defence needs a backup! 🛡️⚔ Out now in @natrevmicro.nature.com our Comment on "𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴"! 🎉 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Immune safeguarding as a conserved principle of antiviral defence - Nature Reviews Microbiology

All organisms defend against viral infections through active immunity mechanisms that clear the virus or population-level mechanisms that cause regulated cell death. Recent research increasingly shows...

nature.com

Proud to present our work, published today in @science.org! My deepest gratitude to @isabelesain.bsky.social, @evandeturk.bsky.social, Jennifer and our collaborators in the Doudna, Cate, Banfield, and Jacobsen labs, and the @innovativegenomics.bsky.social! I hope you enjoy reading it! ✨

Doudna Lab@doudna-lab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Our AI-guided design of RNA-guided nucleases is now out in @science.org 💻🧬 We used structure and evolutionary data to generate minimal, active and divergent gene editors! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social & team!

Now online! A viral ORFeome library for systems-level genetic dissection of host-pathogen interactions

A viral ORFeome library for systems-level genetic dissection of host-pathogen interactions

A scalable library of ∼13,000 barcoded viral open reading frames from >500 viral species enables functional genomic screens across the virome. Applying this platform identified viral regulators of cellular proliferation, antigen presentation, and interferon signaling. This platform enables systematic exploration of viral protein function.

dlvr.it

Ancient wars between microbes gave us key immune defenses | @science.org | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... #microsky #virosky #immunosky

Ancient wars between microbes gave us key immune defenses

A better understanding of battles between bacteria and viruses could inspire new medicines

science.org

With Eugene Koonin, we wrote a rather comprehensive review on the origin, evolution and organization of the #virosphere. We describe all 10 viral realms and the logic behind them, and so much more. Check it out! comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/biologies/ar...

Bacterial immune proteins have repeatedly evolved to become parts of eukaryotic immunity. But how? Our new preprint uncovers a recent horizontal transfer event & shows how eukaryotes co-opted a toxic bacterial immune protein 🦠🧪🧵 1/

New preprint: Cyclic tri-adenylate signalling by a Panoptes anti-phage guard system with a CARF-TM effector. Great work led by Sabine Grüschow www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ribosome centric perspective on the evolution of life. @mkrupovic.bsky.social and Eugene Koonin arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

The selfish ribosome

The ribosome is responsible for protein synthesis in all cells, and is the largest energy consumer in the cell. We propose that the ribosome originated as a mutualistic symbiont of an RNA-dependent RN...

arxiv.org

Our SPARHA story is out in Nature Communications! doi.org/10.1038/s414... We investigated a new short pAgo-HNH defense system, showing that it assembles into filaments degrading cellular DNA, inducing abortive infection, resolved their structure, and uncovered the activation mechanism 🧵

Perfect timing in the field for a beautiful review on NAD+ in bacterial immunity by @hugovaysset.bsky.social and @audeber.bsky.social @cp-molcell.bsky.social #MicroSky www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

You’ve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited for the start of #argonautes2025 tomorrow! This year we're in Prague, @imgprague.bsky.social. Looking forward to sharing science and community with Argonaute aficionados and Argonaute Syndromes Alliance families! 🐙

News from the world of pAgos: We explored a distinct clade of short pAgos associated with HNH nuclease partners, which we named SPARHA, and discovered that they protect bacteria from phages and plasmids via abortive infection. Upon activation, SPARHA oligomerizes, forming filaments. A long 🧵

Very cool (and long-awaited) structures of the Lamassu/DdmABC defense system. Seems to be another weird TA-like system?

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 2y ago

Structure and Activation Mechanism of a Lamassu Phage Defence System https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.643221v1

Wait... what !? 😱 A new family of RNA-guided systems in prokaryotes ! Mind-blowing !

TIGR-Tas: A family of modular RNA-guided DNA-targeting systems in prokaryotes and their viruses

RNA-guided systems provide remarkable versatility, enabling diverse biological functions. Through iterative structural and sequence homology-based mining starting with a guide RNA-interaction domain o...

science.org

What is the diversity of antiphage systems out there ? We used protein and genomic language models (and defense score!) to start bringing some answers: >45 000 protein families. Leb by E. Mordret. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Interactive UMAP to have fun mdmparis.github.io/antiphage-la...