Diverse enzymatic activities mediate antiviral immunity in prokaryotes
Broad Institute · Howard Hughes Medical Institute · +4 more institutions
Abstract
Bacteria and archaea are frequently attacked by viruses and other mobile genetic elements and rely on dedicated antiviral defense systems, such as restriction endonucleases and CRISPR, to survive. The enormous diversity of viruses suggests that more types of defense systems exist than are currently known. By systematic defense gene prediction and heterologous reconstitution, here we discover 29 widespread antiviral gene cassettes, collectively present in 32% of all sequenced bacterial and archaeal genomes, that mediate protection against specific bacteriophages. These systems incorporate enzymatic activities not previously implicated in antiviral defense, including RNA editing and retron satellite DNA…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 46.31
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 62
Authors
10- LGLinyi Gao
Broad Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- HAHan Altae-Tran
Broad Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- FBFrancisca Böhning
Broad Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- KSKira S. Makarova
National Institutes of Health, National Center for Biotechnology Information
- MSMichael Segel
Broad Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Topics & keywords
- Immunity
- Biology
- Enzyme
- Computational biology
- Virology
- Immune system
- Immunology
- Biochemistry