Thoeris

Balancing of immune activation and suppression during phage infection

Signaling-based anti-bacteriophage systems such as CBASS and Thoeris synthesize infection-triggered nucleotide signals that activate anti-phage effectors. However, the phage features sensed by these systems and the mechanisms phages use to evade signaling immunity remain poorly understood. Here, studying clinically relevant Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages from the Migulavirinae family, we show that closely related phages encode subtle allelic variation in side tail fiber proteins that...