Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature.
Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Toni Gabaldón
Very happy to share this preview article written by my postdoc Danny on exciting recent work from @ostermanilya.bsky.social and @soreklab.bsky.social. New bacterial immunity, phage countermeasures, and a double pun combo in the title.
Our paper on the YprA family of helicases and their roles in bacterial defence is now out!
We describe ARMADA, a defence system synergise with Druantia and show that both systems spread horizontally on a novel type of mobile genetic element that we call SPIDERs
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Koonin & team dive deep into YprA-family defence systems that define “SPIDER” elements: satellite phage-like defence islands that overlap with the GIs we showed are transferred by jumbo phages. They're packed with ecologically relevant genes. The stuff that moves matters!
doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...
How do human cells defend against viruses?
@sgfern.bsky.social discovers that human immune proteins named ISGs target ancient features of replication shared between animal and bacterial viruses – opening analysis of human immunity to the power of bacterial genetics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Bacteria and archaea possess an enormous variety of antiviral immune systems that often share homologous proteins and domains. YprA-family helicases a…
CapK is a bacterial DNA damage-activated kinase that phosphorylates transcriptional repressor CapS to control adjacently-encoded anti-phage immune pathway genes in response to a universal stress signal, DNA damage
@kevincorbett.bsky.social and colleagues
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Out Now! Bacterial cell division protein FtsZ complexes with a phage protein to activate bacterial immunity #MicroSky
Phage receptor-binding proteins are known for their LEGO-like modularity, but we still do not fully understand their evolutionary potential and how it shapes phage host range. Our new preprint examines this systematically in Klebsiella phages. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread 🧵
When a protist engulfed a cynaobacterium, Earth changed forever!
@jandevries.bsky.social, @caeciliafkunz.bsky.social,
@heche.bsky.social & colleagues review the origins and
evolution of archaeoplastids, the lineage that arose from this event, including plants & co
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Bacteria encode numerous stress-response pathways that protect their hosts against both internal and external threats. A key question is how these pathways are regulated, especially anti-phage immune ...
NAD to the bone: How bacteria put phages under aRES-t … and how phages fight back
Preview of work IDing aRES, bacterial proteins that deplete cellular NAD+, generating products that cannot be utilized by phage NAD+ regeneration pathways
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
Rafal Mostowy
In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Osterman et al. discover aRES, a new family
of bacterial immune proteins that deplete cellular NAD+, generating cleavage products
that cannot be utilized by canon...
Out Now! Bacteria–phage coevolution drives variation in bacterial wilt disease incidence via resistance–virulence trade-offs #MicroSky
Nature Microbiology
go.nature.com
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 12 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02373-9Phage–bacteria coevolution is associated with field-specific anti-phage defence and locally adapted phage populations, resulting in phage-resistant but weakly virulent pathogens.
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 12 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02384-6The activation of an antiphage defence system relies on host factors targeted by phages, a mechanism analogous to the way that eukaryotic innate immune systems detect pathogen-induced perturbations of host cells through effector-triggered immunity.
