CBASS limits bacteriophage production while maintaining cell viability in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Huiting, Shmidov, et al. report on a CBASS type encoding a phospholipase (CapV) effector that can successfully limit the late stage of phage replication while maintaining cell viability, rather than i...

cell.com

A systematic identification of resistance determinants to antisense antibiotics suggests adaptation strategies dependent on the delivery peptide - Nature Communications

In this study, authors investigate the evolution of bacterial resistance to antisense peptide nucleic acid (PNA) antibiotics. They observe that this typically occurs mainly by reducing drug uptake via...

nature.com

Phage-encoded contingency loci enable bet-hedging against host defence mechanisms - Nature Microbiology

Diverse E. coli phage genomes have hypermutable DNA regions that promote reversible frameshift mutations through DNA polymerase slippage, generating population heterogeneity that enables host exploitation.

nature.com

Shared principles of human and bacterial antiviral immunity - Nature

The Review describes shared ancient, conserved mechanisms between human antiviral immunity and bacterial anti-phage systems, outlining universal principles of pathogen sensing, signalling and effector...

nature.com

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

Bacterial diadenylate cyclase domains synthesize diverse nucleotide signals in anti-phage defense

Bacterial diadenylate cyclase (DAC) enzymes synthesize the nucleotide signal 3′3′ cyclic di-AMP (3′3′-c-di-AMP) to control osmoregulation, cell-wall homeostasis, and DNA-damage responses. Here we disc...

biorxiv.org

Stop codon reassignment to tryptophan in members of the bacterial phylum Actinomycetota

Reassignment of stop codons is a significant evolutionary event with recoding of UGA to tryptophan being previously identified in only three bacterial phyla, the Bacillota, Pseudomonadota and Verrucomicrobiota. Here, we present genomic evidence of this reassignment in a fourth bacterial phylum, the Actinomycetota, specifically in the family Eggerthellaceae. We identify the UGA stop-to-tryptophan reassignment in 34 metagenome-assembled genomes recovered from the stool samples of diverse mammalian hosts, including equids and primates. Canonical markers for this reassignment are consistently observed including conserved UGA codons aligning to tryptophan, loss of release factor 2 (prfB) and presence of a tRNATrp(UCA) gene. We infer that this reassignment occurred at least twice as the lineages containing reassigned genomes are paraphyletic, forming two distinct groups separated by a third lineage with strains that use UGA as a stop codon. These lineages represent three new Eggerthellaceae genera for which we propose the type species Equivita altericodex, Gorillivita intestinalis and Tapirivita inops reflecting isolation source and genomic properties. Organisms representing these genera have reduced genomes and complete or partial loss of biosynthetic pathways, suggesting increasing host dependency and a transition to obligate symbiosis. This likely facilitated stop codon reassignment in Equivita and Gorillivita and suggests Tapirivita is primed for reassignment. This work expands the known phylogenetic diversity of UGA stop-to-tryptophan reassignment in the bacterial domain and establishes the Eggerthellaceae as a new focal point for understanding the evolutionary drivers of genetic code plasticity.

microbiologyresearch.org

BactoMate: an integrated platform for reproducible bacterial microscopy analysis

Quantitative microscopy of microorganisms increasingly produces large, multidimensional datasets, yet their analysis often depends on fragmented workflows spanning file conversion, segmentation, quali...

biorxiv.org

Joint One Lab Call for Doctoral Researchers 2026

The HZI offers 16 fully funded PhD positions - an exceptional opportunity for curious, young scientist to work in a stimulating environment.

helmholtz-hzi.de

The one-way audit

Researchers are required to account for their time and money. Administrative procedures rarely include any account of the research time they consume.

academicrenewal.substack.com

Complete Mutagenesis of the Genome and Proteome of ΦX174

The bacteriophage ΦX174 was the first genome to be sequenced and the first to be chemically synthesised. Here we present a complete map of the consequences of changing every nucleotide in the ΦX174 ge...

biorxiv.org

Image-based transposon screening reveals a flavin reductase that restrains intracellular Salmonella replication in macrophages

Intracellular bacterial pathogens can survive and replicate within host cells, yet an isogenic population follows divergent fates: some bacteria are killed, some arrest growth, and others replicate to...

biorxiv.org

Archaeal Diversity Sheds New Light on the Origin of the Eukaryotic Endomembrane System

The emergence of the endomembrane system marks a pivotal milestone in eukaryogenesis, transforming a primitive prokaryotic cell into a highly intracellular, compartmentalized eukaryotic cell. The mole...

doi.org

Diverse bacterial pattern recognition receptors sense the core phage proteome - Nature

Systematic analysis of prokaryotic STAND NTPases — relatives of animal and plant immune receptors — uncovers diverse antiviral sensors that detect most of the core structural and replicative proteins of bacteriophages.

go.nature.com

Coordinated RNA- and protein-templated synthesis of double-stranded DNA by a dual reverse transcriptase immune system

Bacterial reverse transcriptases defend against viruses, yet how their DNA products stop infection remains unknown. Bacteriophage inhibition of a host recombination enzyme activates the DRT3 defense system, which employs RNA- and protein-templated reverse transcriptases to synthesize antiviral double-stranded DNA.

cell.com

Cross-family and phage-specific gene requirements for Klebsiella infection revealed by scalable RB-TnSeq genetic screens

Author summary Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect bacteria and play central roles in shaping microbial communities across ecosystems. Despite their ecological importance, the bacterial...

journals.plos.org

Animated E. coli Bacteria Drawing

Alt: Animated E. coli Bacteria Drawing

static.klipy.com