Evasion of antiviral bacterial immunity by phage tRNAs

Retrons are bacterial genetic elements that encode a reverse transcriptase and, in combination with toxic effector proteins, can serve as antiphage defense systems. However, the mechanisms of action of most retron effectors, and how phages evade retrons, are not well understood. Here, we show that some phages can evade retrons and other defense systems by producing specific tRNAs. We find that expression of retron-Eco7 effector proteins (PtuA and PtuB) leads to degradation of tRNA<sup>Tyr</sup> and abortive infection. The genomes of T5 phages that evade retron-Eco7 include a tRNA-rich region, including a highly expressed tRNA<sup>Tyr</sup> gene, which confers protection against retron-Eco7. Furthermore, we show that other phages (T1, T7) can use a similar strategy, expressing a tRNA<sup>Lys</sup>, to counteract a tRNA anticodon defense system (PrrC170).

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2024-11-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53789-y
Citations
37
Primary Topic
Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.98

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article

Evasion of antiviral bacterial immunity by phage tRNAs

Kotaro Kiga, Yoshimasa Takahashi, Azumi Tamura, Shinjiro Ojima et al.
37 citations
Nature Communications
Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
16.98
article

Evasion of antiviral bacterial immunity by phage tRNAs

Kotaro Kiga, Yoshimasa Takahashi, Azumi Tamura, Shinjiro Ojima, Longzhu Cui, Yo Sugawara, Motoyuki Sugai, Wakana Yamashita, Aa Haeruman Azam, Koichi Watashi, Kohei Kondo, Tomohiro Nakamura, Kotaro Chihara, Wenhan Nie
article en
37 citations

Abstract

Retrons are bacterial genetic elements that encode a reverse transcriptase and, in combination with toxic effector proteins, can serve as antiphage defense systems. However, the mechanisms of action of most retron effectors, and how phages evade retrons, are not well understood. Here, we show that some phages can evade retrons and other defense systems by producing specific tRNAs. We find that expression of retron-Eco7 effector proteins (PtuA and PtuB) leads to degradation of tRNA<sup>Tyr</sup> and abortive infection. The genomes of T5 phages that evade retron-Eco7 include a tRNA-rich region, including a highly expressed tRNA<sup>Tyr</sup> gene, which confers protection against retron-Eco7. Furthermore, we show that other phages (T1, T7) can use a similar strategy, expressing a tRNA<sup>Lys</sup>, to counteract a tRNA anticodon defense system (PrrC170).

Nature CommunicationsVol. 15(1)
Jichi Medical University (JP), National Institute of Infectious Diseases (JP)
Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, University of Tokyo, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
16.98
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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