ArticleMolecular cell2025
Phage SSB detection by retron Eco8 msDNA unleashes nuclease-mediated immunity.
Article in Molecular cell, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- How bacterial immune systems sense phage infection.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Review
- Classification of Sir2-HerA systems reveals a multilayered regulatory cascade gating the type III antiphage activity.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Higher-order assembly of a type IX retron enables exploitation for designer antimicrobials.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Mechanistic insights into activation of bacterial Retron-Eco8 immunity by phage protein SSB.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Structural basis of Retron-Eco8-mediated antiphage defense.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- It's not me, it's you: Anti-phage nuclease specificity inside a bacterium.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Retrons are antiphage defense systems that synthesize multicopy single-stranded DNA (msDNA) and are being adapted for genome engineering. The Escherichia coli retron Eco8 system comprises a reverse transcriptase (RT), an msDNA, and an overcoming lysogenization defect (OLD)-family nuclease (Eco8-OLD), reminiscent of Gabija. Here, we present the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the Eco8 supramolecular complex, a symmetric 4:4:4 assembly of RT, Eco8-OLD, and msDNA (a hybrid of msrRNA and msdDNA). The msDNA anchors RT and Eco8-OLD into a compact architecture that traps Eco8-OLD in an autoinhibited conformation. Upon phage infection, phage single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs) bind msdDNA, inducing conformational rearrangements that relieve Eco8-OLD autoinhibition and activate its non-specific DNA nuclease activity. This structural transition enables Eco8 to mount a robust antiphage response by restricting phage genome amplification. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism of retron activation and highlight the central role of msDNA as a molecular switch in controlling retron-mediated antiphage defense.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.