Frontiers in Biomedicine: Dr Athanasios Typas
12.12.2024 12:30 – 13:30
«Phages counteract bacterial immunity with a myriad different ways»
The foundations of molecular biology have been established in the mid of the 20th century by studying bacteriophages. Restriction-modification systems and CRISPR, tools that have propelled genetic engineering, are systems that bacteria use to defend against phage attack. Yet, only recently we have started to understand how extensive and diverse are interactions between bacteria and phages. Myriads of bacterial immunity systems are being identified, many being the origins of eukaryotic innate immunity systems. Yet how broad is the phage arsenal in counteracting such defense system, and whether phages possess broad-acting anti-defense systems remain unclear at the moment.
Our work builds on our recent discovery that the enigmatic bacterial retrons, the first prokaryotic elements discovered to encode a reverse transcriptase, serve actually as phage defense systems. First, I will show how a functional metagenomics approach enabled us to discover dozens of small phage proteins that block the toxic activity of a specific retron. Then I will present the first novel phage mechanism that allows for broad counteracting of bacterial innate immunity systems.
Lieu
Bâtiment: CMU
Auditoire Müller
Organisé par
Décanat Faculté de médecineEvénements de la Faculté de médecine
Département de microbiologie et médecine moléculaire
Intervenant-e-s
Dr Athanasios TYPAS, Head of Molecular Systems Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelbergentrée libre
Plus d'infos
Contact: missing email
Fichiers joints
 | afficheA3_FIB_Typas.pdf | 264.6 Kb |
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