Evasion of antiviral bacterial immunity by phage tRNAs

Aa Haeruman Azam, Kohei Kondo, Kotaro Chihara, Tomohiro Nakamura, Shinjiro Ojima, Wenhan Nie, Azumi Tamura, Wakana Yamashita, Yo Sugawara, Motoyuki Sugai, Longzhu Cui, Yoshimasa Takahashi, Koichi Watashi and Kotaro Kiga ()
Additional contact information
Aa Haeruman Azam: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Kohei Kondo: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Kotaro Chihara: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Tomohiro Nakamura: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Shinjiro Ojima: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Wenhan Nie: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Azumi Tamura: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Wakana Yamashita: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Yo Sugawara: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Motoyuki Sugai: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Longzhu Cui: Jichi Medical University
Yoshimasa Takahashi: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Koichi Watashi: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Kotaro Kiga: National Institute of Infectious Diseases

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: 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 tRNATyr and abortive infection. The genomes of T5 phages that evade retron-Eco7 include a tRNA-rich region, including a highly expressed tRNATyr gene, which confers protection against retron-Eco7. Furthermore, we show that other phages (T1, T7) can use a similar strategy, expressing a tRNALys, to counteract a tRNA anticodon defense system (PrrC170).

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53789-y

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