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Killing the messenger to evade bacterial defences

Many mysteries remain about how antiviral responses shape the ability of viruses to infect bacteria. The finding that viruses interfere with signalling mediated by molecules called second messengers sheds light on bacterial defences.
  1. Urs Jenal

    1. Urs Jenal is at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.

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In ancient times, the delivery of an unwelcome message by an envoy to those in high office posed a risk of retribution for the envoy. In Sophocles’ play Antigone, a guard says, “No man delights in the bearer of bad news.” Moreover, neutralizing information carriers is an effective manoeuvre for undermining an enemy’s lines of communication during war. It turns out that viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages, or phages) optimize predation of their microbial hosts by targeting messengers needed for defence systems. Writing in Nature, Hobbs et al.1 report that phages use nuclease enzymes to degrade microbial molecules called nucleotide second messengers, and thereby subvert antiviral responses.

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Nature 605, 431-432 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01127-x

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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