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Virus deploys a ‘loose cannon’ enzyme to overpower bacterial defences

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Viruses that infect bacteria must either evade or counter the defence systems of their host. The viral kinase enzyme T7K has been found to phosphorylate nearly all bacterial proteins, but its specificity for DNA-binding proteins enables it to disable defence systems that target nucleic acids.

This is a summary of: Bartolec, T. et al. Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defences. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10934-5 (2026).

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02537-x

‘Expert opinion’ and the figure are published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

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