DNA glycosylases provide antiviral defence in prokaryotes.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria have adapted to phage predation by evolving a vast assortment of defence systems¹. Although anti-phage immunity genes can be identified using bioinformatic tools, the discovery of novel systems is restricted to the available prokaryotic sequence data². Here, to overcome this limitation, we infected Escherichia coli carrying a soil metagenomic DNA library³ with the lytic coliphage T4 to isolate clones carrying protective genes. Following this approach, we identified Brig1, a DNA glycosylase that excises α-glucosyl-hydroxymethylcytosine nucleobases from the bacteriophage T4 genome to generate abasic sites and inhibit viral replication. Brig1 homologues that provide immunity against T-even phages are present in multiple phage defence loci across disti

SUBMITTER: Hossain AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11078745 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature