Bacteria possess several defense systems against bacteriophages such as well-studied CRISPR-Cas systems and restriction-modification systems. However, there are also some poorly-characterized systems, such as BREX (Bacteriophage Exclusion) system.
In the recent joint study, scientists from the Skoltech Center of Life Sciences and several other organizations have revealed a molecular mechanism of how BREX system distinguishes between self and non-self. For the first time, it was shown that in Escherichia coli immunity to BREX system is provided by methylation of a specific site in DNA. Results of the work were published in the Nucleic Acid Research.
The first author of the publication, Julia Gordeeva, performed the entire work during her studies at Skoltech Life Sciences Master program supervised by Professor Konstantin Severinov. This November Julia started her postgraduate studies at Skoltech where she continues investigations of BREX systems.
Congratulations to Julia and her supervisor!