The Kongming defense: Host-pathogen battles take a new face - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #Bacterial Immunity
- #Host-Pathogen Coevolution
- #Kongming Defense System
- Bacteria use immune systems like CRISPR-Cas to defend against phage infections.
- The Kongming defense system uses phage-derived enzymes to synthesize deoxyinosine triphosphate (dITP), triggering immunity via NAD+ depletion.
- Some phages have evolved countermeasures to disrupt dITP synthesis, illustrating host-pathogen coevolution.
- This discovery advances understanding of bacterial defense and has implications for biomedical research and synthetic biology.