Evasion of antiviral bacterial immunity by phage tRNAs.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39528469.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-53789-y and PMC identifier 11555353.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Retrons are bacterial genetic elements that encode a reverse transcriptase and, in combination with toxic effector proteins, can serve as antiphage defense systems. However, the mechanisms of action of most retron effectors, and how phages evade retrons, are not well understood. Here, we show that some phages can evade retrons and other defense systems by producing specific tRNAs. We find that expression of retron-Eco7 effector proteins (PtuA and PtuB) leads to degradation of tRNA<sup>Tyr</sup> and abortive infection. The genomes of T5 phages that evade retron-Eco7 include a tRNA-rich region, including a highly expressed tRNA<sup>Tyr</sup> gene, which confers protection against retron-Eco7. Furthermore, we show that other phages (T1, T7) can use a similar strategy, expressing a tRNA<sup>Lys</sup>, to counteract a tRNA anticodon defense system (PrrC170).
Medical subject headings
- RNA, Transfer
- Bacteriophages