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Defense and anti-defense mechanisms of bacteria and bacteriophages

细菌和噬菌体间的防御与反防御机制

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Abstract

In the post-antibiotic era, the overuse of antimicrobials has led to a massive increase in antimicrobial resistance, leaving medical doctors few or no treatment options to fight infections caused by superbugs. The use of bacteriophages is a promising alternative to treat infections, supplementing or possibly even replacing antibiotics. Using phages for therapy is possible, since these bacterial viruses can kill bacteria specifically, causing no harm to the normal flora. However, bacteria have developed a multitude of sophisticated and complex ways to resist infection by phages, including abortive infection and the clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) system. Phages also can evolve and acquire new anti-defense strategies to continue predation. An in-depth exploration of both defense and anti-defense mechanisms would contribute to optimizing phage therapy, while we would also gain novel insights into the microbial world. In this paper, we summarize recent research on bacterial phage resistance and phage anti-defense mechanisms, as well as collaborative win-win systems involving both virus and host.

摘要

在后抗生素时代, 因抗菌药过度使用产生的超级细菌引发了严峻的耐药形势。噬菌体能特异性地杀灭细菌, 且不会破坏正常菌群, 可以作为一种有前景的感染治疗途径, 以补充甚至取代抗生素。细菌进化出多种复杂的抵抗噬菌体感染的方式, 包括流产感染和CRISPR-Cas系统, 噬菌体同样也进化出反防御的策略去继续感染细菌。对细菌防御和噬菌体反防御机制的深入探索将有助于噬菌体治疗策略的优化及增加我们对微生物世界认知。为此, 本文对近年来细菌抵抗噬菌体的防御机制、噬菌体的反防御机制及病毒与宿主协同共赢系统等方面的研究进展进行了综述。

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Western Medicine Program of the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission (No. 2024KY592) and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of the Central South University (No. 2-2050205-19-361), China.

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Xiaoqing WANG wrote the original draft and draw the figures. Sebastian LEPTIHN conceived and supervised the review. Both authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoqing Wang  (汪晓庆) or Sebastian Leptihn.

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Xiaoqing WANG and Sebastian LEPTIHN declare that they have no conflict of interest.

This review does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by either of the authors.

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Wang, X., Leptihn, S. Defense and anti-defense mechanisms of bacteria and bacteriophages. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 25, 181–196 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B2300101

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B2300101

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