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Review
. 2013 Oct;11(10):675-87.
doi: 10.1038/nrmicro3096. Epub 2013 Aug 27.

Revenge of the phages: defeating bacterial defences

Julie E Samson  1 , Alfonso H Magadán, Mourad Sabri, Sylvain Moineau
Affiliations
Review

Revenge of the phages: defeating bacterial defences

Julie E Samson et al. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2013 Oct.

Abstract

Bacteria and their viral predators (bacteriophages) are locked in a constant battle. In order to proliferate in phage-rich environments, bacteria have an impressive arsenal of defence mechanisms, and in response, phages have evolved counter-strategies to evade these antiviral systems. In this Review, we describe the various tactics that are used by phages to overcome bacterial resistance mechanisms, including adsorption inhibition, restriction-modification, CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated proteins) systems and abortive infection. Furthermore, we consider how these observations have enhanced our knowledge of phage biology, evolution and phage-host interactions.

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