Description:

Title: The Microbial Arms Race Across Kingdoms: From cGAS to CRISPR-Cas

Speaker:

Nicole Marino, PhD, University of California San Francisco

Topic:

Bacteria encode diverse antiviral defense systems, including CRISPR-Cas and cGAS, that are conserved across kingdoms. Many bacterial viruses (phage), in turn, encode proteins to inactivate these defenses. Here, I will present evidence that a phage-encoded anti-CRISPR specifically inhibits Cas12a biogenesis by triggering translation-dependent mRNA degradation. This novel strategy by a virus to disarm bacterial immunity appears to be widespread and may impact diverse microbial and molecular conflicts. 

Host:

Bacteriology Search Committee

M.-N. Frances Yap, PhD, Committee Chair

Dept. of Microbiology-Immunology

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, IL