Finally, my paper is out! It shows how bacteria can utilize their CRISPR immunity against transducing phages to turn them into "pollinators". This way bacteria can speed up their own adaptation through recombination by two orders of magnitude compared to mutations, and they do so when starving!
Molecular Biology and Evolution@molbioevol.bsky.social · 5d ago@pavelpayne.bsky.social et al. show that bacterial herd immunity can promote homologous recombination, suggesting bacterial immune systems can shape molecular evolution not only by blocking infection but also by regulating genetic exchange 🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... #societyjournal #evobio
