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Virology

Phages hijack a host's defence

Nature volume 494, pages 433–434 (2013)Cite this article

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The discovery that some viruses use a defence mechanism known as a CRISPR/Cas system beautifully illustrates the evolutionary tit-for-tat between viruses and the bacteria they infect. See Letter p.489

If you belong to the most abundant biological entity on the planet, you need a few tricks to stay on top. The global population of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages, or phages) has been estimated to be 1031, outnumbering their bacterial hosts by tenfold1. Bacteria have developed a formidable arsenal of sophisticated strategies to neutralize viruses2, but phages always seem to find a way to evolve, persist and abound. Studies of the complex evolutionary dynamics between phages and bacteria led to the discovery3 of a widespread bacterial defence system called CRISPR/Cas. On page 489 of this issue, Seed et al.4 report the remarkable finding that some phages that infect the bacterial pathogen Vibrio cholerae have also acquired a functional CRISPR/Cas system in their own genome which allows them to neutralize an unrelated antivirus system in their bacterial host.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manuela Villion and Sylvain Moineau are in the Département de biochimie, microbiologie et bio-informatique, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Université Laval, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada.,

    Manuela Villion & Sylvain Moineau

  2. S.M. is also in the Groupe de recherche en écologie buccale, Faculté de médecine dentaire, and the Félix dďHérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses, Université Laval.,

    Sylvain Moineau

Authors
  1. Manuela Villion
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  2. Sylvain Moineau
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Correspondence to Sylvain Moineau.

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Villion, M., Moineau, S. Phages hijack a host's defence. Nature 494, 433–434 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/494433a

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