Bacteriophages infecting an Escherichia coli bacterium.
Credit: Institut Pasteur/Chantal Le Bouguénec (Pathogenic Gram-Positive Bacteria Biology Unit) and Laurent Debarbieux (Molecular Biology of the Gene in Extremophiles Unit). Imaging by Perrine Bomme, Ultrastructural Microscopy Platform. Colorization by Jean-Marc Panaud.
🧬 Bacteria fight both antibiotics and viruses with the same genetic tool: integrons!
New study (Institut Pasteur, CNRS, Université Paris Cité & Montréal): ~10% of gene cassettes may defend against phages.
🛠️ One step closer to smarter therapies.
🔗 www.pasteur.fr/en/research-...
22.05.2025 08:04 — 👍 25 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 1
😜😜 Thanks Basile
09.05.2025 17:23 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems
Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...
At least 10% of the V. cholerae integron cassettes have novel antiphage activities (see below). Considering that there are 25,000 distinct cassettes of unknown function, integrons constitute an extraordinary and almost inexhaustible reservoir of antiphage functions!
09.05.2025 15:26 — 👍 14 🔁 8 💬 2 📌 1
Our paper on how integrons are biobanks of novel minimal defense systems is now out www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Two main conclusions on this excellent work led by @eloilittner.bsky.social @baptistedarracq.bsky.social 1/n
09.05.2025 13:06 — 👍 87 🔁 50 💬 3 📌 0
Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems
Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that capture, stockpile, and modulate the expression of genes encoded in integron cassettes. Mobile integrons (MIs) are borne on plasmids, acting as a vehicle ...
Have also a look at our back-to-back study for mobile integrons by Nicolas Kieffer from @jaescudero.bsky.social group !
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
+ a similar story in V. parahaemolyticus by @landongetz.bsky.social from @themaxwelllab.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
09.05.2025 11:41 — 👍 11 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 0
An enormous thanks for the great co-first author @eloilittner.bsky.social and for our supervisors @celineloot.bsky.social @epcrocha.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @fredoleroux.bsky.social. Many thanks to all co-authors !!
09.05.2025 11:41 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
On the bioinformatic side, eloilittner.bsky.social found a diverse arsenal of anti-phage defenses in SCIs. Strikingly, systems in integrons are always compact (< 3 genes), and smaller than their homologs outside integrons (likely due to cassette size constraints)
09.05.2025 11:41 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
The integron of our favorite model Vibrio cholerae was mostly “dark matter” as most cassettes had no known role. We found this intriguing and cloned 88 cassettes, testing them for phage resistance. We found 16 defensive cassettes and named the systems after gallic mythology
09.05.2025 11:41 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Alt : Structure of the apo Lamassu protein complex. Schematic model of the active LmuA tetramer nuclease (top right). Lamassu icon (top left).
Glad to share the work of @yli18smc.bsky.social and co on Lamassu, a bacterial defense system related to Rad50/Mre11 (RM). While RM carefully trims DNA ends for repair, Lamassu chops up the host chromosome. Our study reveals how it is regulated to minimize damage, activating only during infection.
16.03.2025 09:15 — 👍 57 🔁 30 💬 4 📌 2
Fournisseur en factoïds semi-inutiles en demi-gros et détail, maison fondée en 1974.
Team leader in the Immunology department of Institut Curie, Paris.
Postdoc Institut Pasteur - evolution of bacteria and MGEs
RNA, microbiology, infectious disease; Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research & University of Würzburg, Germany
www.helmholtz-hiri.de
Assistant Professor @Biozentrum, University of Basel.
Jumbophage, Bacterial Immunity, Evolution
Biochemist and Drosophilist by training.
Curious by nature!
🧑🔬 PhD student at @polarityi3s.bsky.social
🚦 RhoGTPases and Cell Division
🫁 Self-Organization from cells to tissues
⚙️Protein Structure and Design
🔬 Image Analysis and Automation
Lecturer & group leader in Lund University. Computational microbiologist, mostly working on toxin-antitoxin systems, ribosomes and bacterial defence against phages. Director of the LU-Fold protein structure prediction infrastructure of LU.
Atkinson-lab.com
Synthetic Biology with a Southern European flavour for a new partnership with the Living World https://vdl-lab.com/ http://seva-plasmids.com/
Evolutionary microbiology research group, Kiel University, Germany
professor at Institut Pasteur. Bacterial genomics, vaccine-preventable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, bioinformatics and public heath applications. International capacity building and teaching. Klebsiella diphtheria whooping cough genomic librairies
Postdoc with Aude Bernheim (@mdmlab.bsky.social) and Enzo Poirier studying the conservation of immunity across the tree of life | Institut Curie & Institut Pasteur | Former PhD student @epcrocha.bsky.social
Phage biologist focused on virus-host interactions and bacterial pathogenesis.
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