Phosphorylation, an Altruistic Bacterial Trick to Halt Phages

Simon J Labrie; Sylvain Moineau

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2016.09.017

Phosphorylation, an Altruistic Bacterial Trick to Halt Phages

Cell Host Microbe. 2016 Oct 12;20(4):409-410. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2016.09.017.

Authors

Simon J Labrie¹, Sylvain Moineau²

Affiliations

¹ Département de biochimie, de microbiologie, et de bioinformatique, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses and GREB, Faculté de médecine dentaire, Université Laval, Québec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada.
² Département de biochimie, de microbiologie, et de bioinformatique, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses and GREB, Faculté de médecine dentaire, Université Laval, Québec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. Electronic address: sylvain.moineau@bcm.ulaval.ca.

PMID: 27736637
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2016.09.017

Abstract

Bacterial genomic islands contain hidden treasures. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Depardieu et al. (2016) found, in one of those islands, an altruistic anti-phage system that is triggered by a phage component and induces a phosphorylation cascade leading to protection of the bacterial population.

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MeSH terms

Bacteriophages / genetics*
Phosphorylation