Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Dan Portik @dportik.bsky.social · 7d

New pre-print from the Banfield lab, highlighting an interesting case of 1.5Mb megaplasmids found in human gut.

Plasmid genomes were resolved using #PacBio HiFi sequencing with hifiasm-meta for #metagenome assembly. Host association was detected using epigenetic signals.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Megaplasmids associate with Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae

Humans and animals are ubiquitously colonized by Enterobacteriaceae , a bacterial family that contains both commensals and clinically significant pathogens. Here, we report Enterobacteriaceae megaplas...

doi.org

1 22 48

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Ben Adler @benadler.bsky.social · 7d

Today in @nature.com , we highlight how a cousin of CRISPR-Cas10, mCpol, establishes an evolutionary trap in anti-phage immune systems.

Check out @erinedoherty.bsky.social and my work from @doudna-lab.bsky.social lab here:
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

3 54 110

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Asaf Levy @asaflevylab.bsky.social · 15d

A recent cool preprint by John Whitney's lab on a new family of antibacterial proteins secreted by Gram-positive bacteria that enter and kill a broad spectrum of bacteria. Cell entry is receptor-independent and relies on cleavage by a co-secreted protease and the PMF.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Proteolytically activated antibacterial toxins inhibit the growth of diverse Gram-positive bacteria

Many species of bacteria produce small-molecule antibiotics that enter and kill a wide range of competitor microbes. However, diffusible antibacterial proteins that share this broad-spectrum activity ...

www.biorxiv.org

21 32

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Cress Lab @cresslab.bsky.social · Aug 25

Some pics of our awesome PhD candidate, @sophswartz.bsky.social, presenting at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory conference!

1 10

Reposted by Owen Tuck

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

2 28 42

Owen Tuck @owentuck.bsky.social · Aug 18

Congrats and best of luck!

1 2

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Jason Nomburg @jnoms.bsky.social · Aug 15

Very happy to share that I will be starting my lab at AITHYRA in October! My lab will use structural bioinformatics and functional genomics to understand the function of viral proteins, with a special emphasis on understanding how viruses subvert innate immunity.

AITHYRA Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences @aithyra.bsky.social · Aug 15

Welcome JASON NOMBURG! With great pleasure we announce that Jason Nomburg is one of the Starting Principal Investigators LS who will join AITHYRA in October 2025. Jason wants to understand the function of proteins in the virome.
More information: www.oeaw.ac.at/aithyra/rese... #AITHYRA #StartingPI

Jason Nomburg = Science-lover + enthusiastic + driven + sarcastic + positive

@jnoms.bsky.social‬‬

4 5 34

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · Jul 30

We wrote a review on the free nucleotide pool as a central playground in human, bacterial, and plant immunity – now out in Nature Reviews in Immunology

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

Was fun to write this piece with Dina Hochhauser!

Here is a thread to explain the premises

1/

Manipulation of the nucleotide pool in human, bacterial and plant immunity - Nature Reviews Immunology

Modification of the nucleotide pool is emerging as key to innate immunity in animals, plants and bacteria. This Review explains how immune pathways conserved from bacteria to humans manipulate the nuc...

www.nature.com

2 47 110

Reposted by Owen Tuck

Doudna Lab @doudna-lab.bsky.social · Jul 29

‼️ New pre-print from co-leads @owentuck.bsky.social and Jason Hu! Check out this fascinating example of how coevolution enables defense system innovation.