Jakob T. Rostøl

Apr 1, 2024 | nature.com | Jakob T. Rostøl |Nuria Quiles-Puchalt |Iñigo Lasa

AbstractDormant prophages protect lysogenic cells by expressing diverse immune systems, which must avoid targeting their cognate prophages upon activation. Here we report that multiple Staphylococcus aureus prophages encode Tha (tail-activated, HEPN (higher eukaryotes and prokaryotes nucleotide-binding) domain-containing anti-phage system), a defence system activated by structural tail proteins of incoming phages.