A novel strategy to protect prokaryotic cells from virus infection

Abstract

The recent discovery of the CRISPR-Cas-mediated acquired immunity system highlights the fact that our knowledge of phage/virus defense mechanisms encoded in bacterial and archaeal genomes is far from complete. Indeed, new prokaryotic immune systems are now continually being discovered. A recent report described a novel glycosylase that recognizes α-glycosyl-hydroxymethyl cytosin (α-Glu-hmC), a modified base observed in the T4 phage genome, where it produces an abasic site, thereby inhibiting the phage propagation.

Keywords

Prokaryotic immunity / Antiviral defense / Glycosylase / Modified base / Functional screening

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:

Given his role as editorial board member, Dr. Yoshizumi Ishino, had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to Dr. Qunxin She.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yoshizumi Ishino: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft.

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