Séminaire CIRI : Dr. François ROUSSET

Dr. François ROUSSET, Weizmann Institute of Science - Department of Molecular Genetics Israel, « Bacterial immunity as a source of novel antiviral mechanisms across the tree of life »

Abstract: Multiple components of the innate immune system of animals were recently shown to be conserved in bacteria where they function to protect against phage infection, such as the cGAS-STING pathway, gasdermin-mediated pyroptosis and the RNAi pathway. Here, we report a novel family of immune effectors in bacteria which degrade cellular ATP and dATP in response to phage infection by cleaving the N-glycosidic bond between the adenine and sugar moieties. This ATP nucleosidase domain is also encoded within a diverse set of eukaryotic immune proteins, suggesting that (d)ATP degradation is a cell-autonomous innate immune strategy that is conserved across the tree of life. Our work illustrates how the study of bacterial defense against phages can expand our knowledge of eukaryotic innate immunity.