Research/Phage biology
Testing defenses against real phages
A predicted immune system only counts once it protects bacteria from infection. We isolate phages, challenge bacteria that carry a defense system, and count what gets through.
Phage dilution10⁰10⁻¹10⁻²10⁻³10⁻⁴10⁻⁵10⁻⁶10⁻⁷
Illustration, not data. Each spot is 3 µL of a ten-fold dilution series; dark areas are where phages have lysed the lawn. Efficiency of plating (EOP) compares the plaques on the defended lawn with the empty-vector control.
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Phage biology
A typical workflow
- Put the defense system into a lab strain of bacteria
- Plate phage dilutions on a lawn of those bacteria
- Count plaques and compare with bacteria that lack the system
- Spot and plaque assays
- Efficiency of plating
- Phage isolation
- Growth and infection time courses
Selected papers
- A prophage-encoded sRNA limits phage infection of adherent-invasive E. coliPLOS Pathogens · 2026
- Structural basis of antiphage defence by an ATPase-associated reverse transcriptaseNature Communications · 2025
- A virally encoded tRNA neutralizes the PARIS antiviral defence systemNature · 2024
- Multiple mechanisms for CRISPR-Cas inhibition by anti-CRISPR proteinsNature · 2015