ArticleNature microbiology2025
Expression level of anti-phage defence systems controls a trade-off between protection range and autoimmunity.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- When phage restriction is not immunity: Immune gates, replication-niche barriers, and assay-limited phenotypes.Engineering microbiology · 2026Article
- Shuttling, swapping, and mixing: the rapid modular evolution of antiviral repertoires in temperate phages and their satellites.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- High-throughput recovery of integron cassettes for gene discovery screens.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Rapid and quantitative measurement of bacteriophage infectivity via fully automated droplet digital PCR.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Antiphage defence systems Druantia III and Zorya II synergise via shared DNA intermediates in a phage-specific manner.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Modulation of Hachiman defence by a type II toxin-antitoxin system via balancing trade-off between the fitness cost and antiphage activity.Engineering microbiology · 2026Article
- [Research on Bacteriophage Resistance: Coevolutionary Arms Race Between Bacteria and Phages Drives Novel Antibacterial Therapies].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2026Review
- A methylome-derived mbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Characterization of syntons across bacterial genomes using non-redundant genomic contexts.microLife · 2026Article
- A Gifsy prophage-encoded protein confers broad phage resistance inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The evolutionary arms race between bacteria and phages has given rise to elaborate anti-phage defence mechanisms. Although many of these systems have been characterized at the molecular level, the general principles and constraints at play are underexplored. It is broadly recognized that in addition to the protection they provide, these systems also bear a substantial cost. Here we identify an expression-dependent trade-off between the protection range of defence systems and the fitness burden they impose. We first focus on the SpbK system of Bacillus subtilis and then generalize to other systems across a range of bacteria. We show that increasing expression of defence systems enhances their protection range, and provide evidence that this is achieved by overwhelming phage strategies for circumventing bacterial defence. However, for most systems tested, increased expression also leads to self-inflicted toxicity. This trade-off between protection and autoimmunity may shape the evolution of regulatory strategies and favour the coexistence of multiple systems within a single genome.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40715783What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.