Kranzusch Lab

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation | PNAS Nucleotide triphosphate (NTP)-dependent molecular switches regulate essential cellular processes by cycling between active and inactive states thro...

Our preprint is now published in PNAS! This came together thanks to a great collaboration with Antoine Hocher and a strong team effort from the Le Lab. Thank you to the reviewers and to everyone who helped improve it. I hope ParB aficionados will enjoy it.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Systematic discovery of TIR-based immune signaling systems in bacteria Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domains are important for immune signaling across humans, plants and bacteria. These domains were recently found to produce immune signaling molecules in plant immuni...

I’m happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed)
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu

Filament formation and NAD processing by noncanonical human FAM118 sirtuins Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - Baretić and Missoury et al. identify vertebrate proteins FAM118B and FAM118A as sirtuins similar to bacterial antiphage enzymes and show that...

Very happy to share our collaborative project on FAM118 proteins - noncanonical sirtuins that form filaments and process NAD in human and other vertebrate cells.

Congratulations to Sorek lab alumnus Nitzan Tal, who won the prestigious 2025 Science & SciLifeLab prize for the best PhD thesis in Systems Biology! 💫

Read her Prize Assay, published in the journal Science today

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

@nitzantal.bsky.social

Cap1 forms a cyclic tetra-adenylate-induced membrane pore during the type III-A CRISPR-Cas immune response https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.688252v1

Recurrent acquisition of nuclease-protease pairs in antiviral immunity Antiviral immune systems diversify by integrating new genes into existing pathways, creating new mechanisms of viral resistance. We identified genes encoding a predicted nuclease paired with a trypsin...

Our nuclease-protease story is out! We explored a fascinating case of coevolution and modularity in prokaryotic immune systems: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks to wonderful coauthors/collaborators/friends, the whole @doudna-lab.bsky.social and everyone at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social

Gluing a bulky host protein onto an immune surveillance complex is a wild mechanism of viral immune evasion!

@natmicrobiol.nature.com
#phagesky #phage #microsky

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

Delighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our article describing a prefusion-stabilized MARV GP vaccine immunogen and a best-in-class MARV neutralizing and protective antibody!

Led by @aminaddetia.bsky.social with @virbiotechnology.bsky.social

@hhmi.org

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

🚨New preprint out!
We present a foundational genomic resource of human gut microbiome viruses. It delivers high-quality, deeply curated data spanning taxonomy, predicted hosts, structures, and functions, providing a reference for gut virome research. (1/8)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A new family of globally distributed lytic roseophages with unusual deoxythymidine to deoxyuridine substitution Marine bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) are abundant biological entities that are vital for shaping microbial diversity, impacting marine ecosystem …

from 2021. A new family of globally distributed lytic roseophages with unusual deoxythymidine to deoxyuridine substitution www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @cyanoney.bsky.social

A membrane-bound nuclease directly cleaves phage DNA during genome injection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.685801v1

Labs in bacterial immunity

Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79).

Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky

Human non-canonical inflammasomes activate CASP3 to limit intracellular Salmonella replication in macrophages. Inflammasomes are multiprotein signaling platforms that activate inflammatory caspases to induce pyroptosis. In humans, canonical inflammasomes activate CASP1, which cleaves the pore-forming protein g...

Check out our latest work led by two talented postdocs, Madhura @mkulkarni.bsky.social and Chris. We find that CASP4/5 can cleave and activate CASP3/7, acting as initiators of both pyroptosis and apoptosis. Notably, both are needed for full pathogen defense!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mechanistic basis for protein conjugation in a diverged bacterial ubiquitination pathway - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Ye et al. define the structure and mechanisms of a bacterial pathway that performs ubiquitination-like protein conjugation, revealing new insights into the evolution and biological roles of ubiquitina...

#microsky #phagesky #phage defence

Novel bacterial ubiquitination-like pathway!

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

Our new preprint is out 🥳🥳🥳

Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?

👇

Last year it was discovered that a single bacterial NLR-like protein can recognize multiple, structurally unrelated phage proteins (Béchon et al, Kibby et al)

Now, a new study shows the same for a plant NLR. Another example how principles of immunity remain conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes

Wilkinson Lab We discover and study reverse transcriptases

The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social

🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬

annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)

Antiviral Defence is a Conserved Function of Diverse DNA Glycosylases Bacteria are frequently attacked by viruses, known as phages, and rely on diverse defence systems like restriction endonucleases and CRISPR-Cas to survive. While phages can evade these defences by cov...

Excited to share: DNA glycosylases are diverse antiviral effectors. They recognize phage base modifications and initiate genome destruction. A structure‑guided approach made the scope of this discovery possible! 🧪 #phagesky doi.org/10.1101/2025... #phage #microbiology

By the @cellsensing.bsky.social and Zipfel labs: The plant receptor kinase HSL3 senses a cyclic, disulfide-bond stabilized peptide phytocytokine. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities?

Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.

🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

Excited to share some new work from the lab, led by @shelbyeandersen.bsky.social where we developed a method and computational pipeline to identify antiphage defenses across diverse bacterial phyla.

🚨 Systems Virology Journal Club – 8th Series! 🚨
#BillSchneider and I are delighted to announce another round of cutting-edge talks in #SystemsVirology! 🦠💡
Join us and an outstanding lineup of speakers, starting Oct 30.
Free registration: shiraweingartengabbay.com/systems-viro... 🔬✨

Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from?

Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral reverse transcriptases, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Antiviral reverse transcriptases reveal the evolutionary origin of telomerase Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) employ diverse and distinctive mechanisms of cDNA synthesis to protect bacteria against viral infection. However, much of DRT family diversity remains ...

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from?

Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Perfect timing in the field for a beautiful review on NAD+ in bacterial immunity by @hugovaysset.bsky.social and @audeber.bsky.social @cp-molcell.bsky.social

#MicroSky

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

Jeannette Tenthorey • The David and Lucile Packard Foundation A staggering 8% of the human genome derives from endogenous retroviruses, ancient evolutionary fossils that have been dismissed as vestiges. Yet recent work has revealed that some of these viral genes...

Very excited for Jeannette Tenthorey! @packardfdn.bsky.social @ucsfhealth.bsky.social

The IFIT2–IFIT3 antiviral complex targets short 5’ untranslated regions on viral mRNAs for translation inhibition - Nature Microbiology Viruses generally have compact genomes, resulting in many viral mRNAs with short 5’ untranslated regions. An antiviral complex exploits this feature of viral mRNAs to selectively inhibit viral protein...

The IFIT2–IFIT3 antiviral complex targets short 5’ untranslated regions on viral mRNAs for translation inhibition

By Dustin Glasner, Matthew Daugherty & colleagues.

#microsky

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

Two intensive sampling periods of oyster-associated vibrio and their phage, 4 years apart, and many surprises. Despite being washed by the Atlantic, wide tides, and vibrio (almost?) disappearing most of the year, we can find the exact same virulent phages 4 years later (down to 0 SNP)! preprint👇