Science:Life Sciences
473: Bacteriophage Bunks in Bacterial Barriers
2022-12-26
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This episode: A bacteriophage that overcomes the bacterial CRISPR/Cas immune system by interrupting the CRISPR DNA with its own genome!
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Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Wenzhou mammarenavirus
Takeaways
Bacteria have many ways to resist being exploited by bacteriophage viruses, including the adaptable CRISPR/Cas system that uses a piece of viral nucleic acid sequence to target and destroy incoming phages. But phages also have many ways to evade and disrupt bacterial defenses.
In this study, a phage is discovered that inserts its own genome into the CRISPR/Cas sequence in the bacterial genome, disrupting the bacterial defenses. To escape the defenses while it is doing this insertion, it carries genes for previously-unknown anti-CRISPR proteins. But inserting and removing a viral sequence from the bacterial genome is not always a clean procedure.
In this study, a phage is discovered that inserts its own genome into the CRISPR/Cas sequence in the bacterial genome, disrupting the bacterial defenses. To escape the defenses while it is doing this insertion, it carries genes for previously-unknown anti-CRISPR proteins. But inserting and removing a viral sequence from the bacterial genome is not always a clean procedure.
Varble A, Campisi E, Euler CW, Maguin P, Kozlova A, Fyodorova J, Rostøl JT, Fischetti VA, Marraffini LA. 2021. Prophage integration into CRISPR loci enables evasion of antiviral immunity in Streptococcus pyogenes. 12. Nat Microbiol 6:1516–1525.
Other interesting stories:
- Great article on the history of phage therapy
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