François Rousset

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.

We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social

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

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...

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/

A new preprint led by Sonomi Yamaguchi in our lab describes a bacterial anti-phage defense system named Clover that uses nucleotide signals to both activate and inhibit host immunity.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📢Preprint out!
Excited to share my final work from the @soreklab.bsky.social!

We mined phage dark matter using structural features shared by anti-defense proteins (viral tools that help phages bypass bacterial immunity) to guide discovery.

Found 3 new families targeting immune signaling!

Preprint: “Structural modeling reveals viral proteins that manipulate host immune signaling”

Using AI-guided structural modeling, we find new families of viral proteins that sequester or cleave host immune signaling molecules

Congrats Nitzan Tal!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Phage arabinosyl-hydroxy-cytosine DNA modifications result in distinct evasion and sensitivity responses to phage defense systems Mahler et al. describe a phage DNA modification that adds arabinose to cytosines via a hydroxy linkage. This 5ara-hC modification can be further modified to double and triple arabinosylation by phage-...

Phage DNA modifications evade defense

Phage DNA modification adds arabinose to cytosines via hydroxy linkage (5ara-hC) w/ potential double & triple arabinosylation. Arabinosylated phages are protected from DNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas & restriction modification
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Corey Allard et al asks how “solar-powered” slugs maintain stolen chloroplasts from their diet for photosynthesis and starvation resistance. @cellpress.bsky.social, @harvardmcb.bsky.social, @harvardmed.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Excited for New Approaches and Concepts in Microbiology 2025 with sessions on Bacterial systems biology, Bacterial cell biology & protein machines, Microbiomes, Environment & evolution, Pathogenesis & phage, Antibiotic discovery, mechanisms, and resistance. #EESMicrobiology

Signez la pétition Sauvons le Palais de la découverte

Le Palais de la Découverte est menacé! Il a contribué à éveiller ma passion pour la science quand j'étais petit. Nous devons tout faire pour protéger ce lieu unique qui a toute sa place au cœur de Paris. Signez la pétition ici: chng.it/BnR9gZvhL2

Nature invented CRISPRa way before scientists did 🤩

Awesome work by the @sternberglab.bsky.social

Looking forward to seeing cool applications coming out of this !

1/10 New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang's Lab! We uncover the unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs.
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🎉 Congratulations to David Bikard @pasteur.fr on his 2025 @embo.org Gold Medal win!

🧬 He's pioneering phage-CRISPR tools to edit gut #bacteria in vivo, reshaping the #microbiome from within and opening the door to targeted therapies.

👉 europa.eu/!HQbHTw
👉 europa.eu/!KtWf33

@dbikard.bsky.social

We're thrilled to share the published version of our DRT9 story, online today @nature.com! Congratulations to all authors!

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

I will be recruiting new postdocs with start dates end 2025 - early 2026. If you'd like to work at the Pasteur Institute in the heart of Paris surrounded by amazing scientists, reach out to discuss possible projects on SynBio / Bacterial Immunity!

1/10 Today in @science.org in collaboration with
the Liu group we report the development of a laboratory-evolved CRISPR-associated transposase (evoCAST) that supports therapeutically relevant levels of RNA-programmable gene insertion in human cells. drive.google.com/file/d/1I-Ub...

A new preprint from the lab in collaboration with Feng Jiang.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This is a thread for you if you're interested in secretion systems, phages, and evolution.

The extracellular contractile injection system (eCIS) is a mysterious microbial toxin delivery system.

Habemus paper! Our story on integron-encoded anti-phage defenses is now out in @science.org! 16 new systems, small versions of known ones, and a lot more in this highly-collaborative study.

Many thanks to everyone involved, especially my supervisor @epcrocha.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/bapt...

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

Biofilm architecture determines the dissemination of conjugative plasmids | PNAS Plasmid conjugation is a contact-dependent horizontal gene transfer mechanism that significantly contributes to the dissemination of antibiotic res...

New publication from our Lesterlin lab in collab with lab of @knutdrescher.bsky.social
We determined the spatiotemporal dissemination of conjugative plasmids within biofilms and found that they spread only in specific structural regions.

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

I hear a lot of great feedback from this model, definitely first on the list so far

Thanks for sharing, I guess I missed this thread !

Looking for feedback on microplate readers 🤔

What's a good, reliable and robust microplate reader that includes absorbance, fluorescence and luminescence ? I've only used Tecan models so far, but they don't seem super robust with prolonged shaking for microbial growth experiments.

Any advice ?

Advancing RNA phage biology through meta-omics Abstract. Bacteriophages with RNA genomes are among the simplest biological entities on Earth. Since their discovery in the 1960s, they have been used as i

In this first publication from the lab, now out in @narjournal.bsky.social, we review the current state of RNA phage biology with a focus on meta-omics methods. Many things left to be discovered!

#PhageSky

doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Microbial warfare brought us CRISPR. What big breakthroughs could be next? Nature - Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders. But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms...

Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders.

But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms race
https://go.nature.com/3XWPX2C

I couldn't congratulate you on your great talk ! Safe travels !

And here it is, the completed BASEL collection finally published as early access in @plosbiology.org - see the thread for more details. 🤗🧬🎣

News from the world of pAgos:
We explored a distinct clade of short pAgos associated with HNH nuclease partners, which we named SPARHA, and discovered that they protect bacteria from phages and plasmids via abortive infection. Upon activation, SPARHA oligomerizes, forming filaments.
A long 🧵

Target-induced Argonaute-HNH filaments confer bacterial immunity Argonaute proteins provide innate immunity in all domains of life through guide-dependent recognition of invader nucleic acids. While eukaryotic Argonautes (eAgos) act on RNA during RNA interference, ...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A few amazing papers released hours before the start of the Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria @pasteur.fr 🤩

Deazaguanylation is a nucleobase-protein conjugation required for type IV CBASS immunity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.06.647259v1