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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Aaron Whiteley @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social · 4h

Our work on the Panoptes antiphage system is published! Here we find that Panoptes "watches" the cytosol for phage immune evasion proteins–captured in this illustration by Clair Huffine of Insight Illustrations. A beautiful example of the effector triggered immunity paradigm.

Illustration depicting a bacterium under assault by phage. The bacterium “sees” phage immune evasion proteins and protects itself using a newly described antiphage system called Panoptes, named for the many-eyed mythical giant Argus Panoptes. Credit: Clair Huffine Insight Illustrations LLC

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Ashley Sullivan @aesully98.bsky.social · 4d

A little late to the Panoptes party, but I’m delighted to share that our paper is published! 👁️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Panoptes system uses decoy cyclic nucleotides to defend against phage - Nature

The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

www.nature.com

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 5d

Thanks very much, Luuk

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 6d

My pleasure @erinedoherty.bsky.social and @benmorehouse.bsky.social - for me this was the stand-out discovery of the last year in the field

Erin Doherty @erinedoherty.bsky.social · 6d

And thanks to @mfwhite2.bsky.social for this great perspective on both works! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Bacteria use a decoy defence molecule to set a trap for viruses

Some bacterial-infecting viruses use ‘sponges’ to mop up defence molecules, but bacteria can fight back by responding when a sponge captures decoy molecules.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 6d

Are viruses capable of regulating protein synthesis in the nuanced way of cellular organisms? Kinda! I’m excited to share some of my postdoc work that leveraged giant DNA viruses to address this question.

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life

In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

www.biorxiv.org

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks, Francois!

Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 6d

And if you don’t like reading so many words, check out the summary piece kindly written by @mfwhite2.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Bacteria use a decoy defence molecule to set a trap for viruses

Some bacterial-infecting viruses use ‘sponges’ to mop up defence molecules, but bacteria can fight back by responding when a sponge captures decoy molecules.

www.nature.com

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 6d

We are also pleased to be published alongside our friends in the @doudna-lab.bsky.social, @erinedoherty.bsky.social, @benadler.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature

Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.

www.nature.com

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 6d

Check out how the story has expanded since the preprint back in March. Congrats to @aesully98.bsky.social, @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social, and all our co-authors! I am especially proud of this work as our new-ish lab’s first major ‘public offering’ and one where so many trainees contributed.

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 6d

Our story describing the Panoptes bacterial immune defense system is now finally peer-reviewed and published today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Panoptes system uses decoy cyclic nucleotides to defend against phage - Nature

The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 11d

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/t...

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads

The solicitation for the 2025 submission dates for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is out, with the first deadline of November 10 for life-sciences disciplines. The big news is that el…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Kranzusch Lab @kranzuschlab.bsky.social · 12d

You’ve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · 27d

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Sep 5

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1

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Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · Sep 2

Preprint: De-novo design of proteins that inhibit bacterial defenses

Our approach allows silencing defense systems of choice. We show how this approach enables programming of “untransformable” bacteria, and how it can enhance phage therapy applications

Congrats Jeremy Garb!
tinyurl.com/Syttt
🧵

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection

Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Jeremy Garb @garbjeremy.bsky.social · Sep 2

📢 New preprint alert!
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection

Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Romi Hadary @romihadary.bsky.social · Aug 25

📢 Preprint out!
Together with @reneechang.bsky.social @kranzuschlab.bsky.social and the amazing @soreklab.bsky.social, we explored viral sponges to map their diversity and function.

Discovered huge diversity, including sponges that inhibit Pycsar & Type IV Thoeris!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Functional diversity of phage sponge proteins that sequester host immune signals

Multiple bacterial immune systems, including CBASS, Thoeris, and Pycsar, employ signaling molecules that activate the immune response following phage infection. Phages counteract bacterial immune sign...

www.biorxiv.org

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Kranzusch Lab @kranzuschlab.bsky.social · Aug 22

The beautiful, ever-expanding universe of viral proteins targeting nucleotide immune signals!

Paper by @reneechang.bsky.social in @cp-molcell.bsky.social on a nucleotide sponge www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

and preprint by @doudna-lab.bsky.social on viral nucleases www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A widespread family of viral sponge proteins reveals specific inhibition of nucleotide signals in anti-phage defense

Chang et al. discover anti-CBASS 4 (Acb4), a family of viral sponges that inhibits bacterial immunity by sequestering nucleotide immune signals. Acb4 homologs in phages that infect hosts across all ma...

www.cell.com

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Renee Chang @reneechang.bsky.social · Aug 23

Excited to share my PhD work in the @kranzuschlab.bsky.social, out now in Molecular Cell @cp-molcell.bsky.social

We discover Acb4, a new family of viral sponges that sequesters nucleotide immune signals and defines molecular features that enable ligand specificity.

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

A widespread family of viral sponge proteins reveals specific inhibition of nucleotide signals in anti-phage defense

Chang et al. discover anti-CBASS 4 (Acb4), a family of viral sponges that inhibits bacterial immunity by sequestering nucleotide immune signals. Acb4 homologs in phages that infect hosts across all ma...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Erin Doherty @erinedoherty.bsky.social · Aug 22

Excited to share our new preprint co-led by @jnoms.bsky.social!

Here we reveal an exceptional diversity of viral 2H phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that enable immune evasion by selectively degrading oligonucleotide-based messengers. This 2H PDE fold has evolved striking substrate breath & specificity.

Divergent viral phosphodiesterases for immune signaling evasion

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) and other short oligonucleotides play fundamental roles in immune system activation in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. In response, viruses use phosphodiesterase...

www.biorxiv.org

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Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Aug 21

Read the adjoining research paper here:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Characterization of an amyloid-based antiphage defence system in Escherichia coli - Nature Microbiology

Prion-like proteins in Escherichia coli trigger an abortive infection mechanism in response to phage infection—a process similar to amyloid-mediated immune signalling in fungi and animals.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ben Morehouse

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Aug 21

#News&Views

Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

#MicroSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Amyloids in bacterial antiphage defence - Nature Microbiology

Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

www.nature.com

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · Aug 21

Very interesting work from Ibarlosa and colleagues regarding functional amyloid forming proteins in prokaryotic immunity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out our News & Views summary of the work as well!
rdcu.be/eBHxh

Amyloids in bacterial antiphage defence

Nature Microbiology - Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

rdcu.be

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Fabian Rivera-Chávez @fabianrchavez.bsky.social · Aug 18

1/ Excited to share the first preprint from my lab! 🎉

My postdoc Paz asked how cholera toxin (CT) helps Vibrio cholerae thrive in the gut.

Turns out, CT rewires epithelial metabolism toward L-lactate production—fueling pathogen growth in the small intestine during disease

Cholera toxin-induced disease generates epithelial cell-derived L-lactate that promotes Vibrio cholerae growth in the small intestine

Cholera toxin (CT) promotes Vibrio cholerae colonization by altering gut metabolism to favor pathogen growth. We have previously found that CT-induced disease leads to increased concentrations of L-la...

www.biorxiv.org

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Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · Aug 13

congrats!

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