Diversity and evolution of archaeal immune strategies - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #immune systems
- #archaea
- #evolution
- Archaeal antiviral defense systems are less characterized compared to bacterial systems.
- Analysis of 7747 archaeal genomes shows a disparity in defense system prevalence and diversity compared to Bacteria.
- Nearly one-third of archaeal genomes lack detected defense systems beyond CRISPR-Cas and restriction-modification.
- Only 50-55% of archaeal genomes contain CRISPR-Cas systems, lower than previous estimates.
- Many known defense systems are restricted to Bacteria, while some single-gene putative candidate systems (PDCs) are enriched in Archaea.
- Phylogenetic analyses suggest PDC-S70 and PDC-M05 likely originated in Archaea.
- Deep evolutionary links exist between archaeal and eukaryotic systems for argonautes and viperins.
- Findings highlight the underexplored nature and evolutionary significance of archaeal immunity.