{
  "abstract": "Bacteria and phages have co-evolved tit-for-tat strategies to combat one another for survival. To overcome phage infection, bacteria have developed various defense systems (the defensome), and in response, phages have evolved a counter-defensome to inhibit or evade such defensive strategies. While significant progress has been achieved on mechanistic, structural and functional aspects of the defensome, the study of the phage counter-defensome is relatively new, with very limited information available on the diversity and distribution of these systems across complex environmental phageomes. Here we present a large-scale analysis of the counter-defensome of 50,595 DNA phage population genomes reconstructed from soil, marine, and human gut environments. We observed substantial variation in the frequency and composition of the counter-defensome across phage families, which correlated with host range, habitat, and geographic context. A substantial fraction of the counter-defensome was clustered in islands, with gene expression restricted to a limited subset of families. Moreover, both phage counter-defense and bacterial-type defense families were detected across genomes of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses, suggesting cross-clade horizontal gene transfer. Our results reveal the diverse counter-defense strategies across environmentally distinct viral communities and provide a foundation for uncovering novel mechanisms that shape conflicts and alliances in host-virus immunity networks.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Genomique Metabolique, Genoscope, Institut Francois Jacob, Commissariat a l Energie Atomique (CEA), CNRS, Universite Evry, Universite Paris-Saclay, 2 Rue Gaston"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "A. Beavogui"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. da Silva e Silva"
    },
    {
      "name": "I. G. Gomes"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Doladille"
    },
    {
      "name": "N. Wiart"
    },
    {
      "name": "P. Wincker"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "P. H. Oliveira"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ezzqk3hxjd6x2.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.08.10.744029",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744029v2.full",
  "id": "ezzqk3hxjd6x2",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744029v2",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "genomics"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2303|Bacteriophages and microbial interactions"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7202271585",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744029v2.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-08-10",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ezzqk3hxjd6x2.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:26:55Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.08.10.744029",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744029v2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:genomics",
      "subfield": "genetics-genomics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Community-level diversity of viral counter-defensomes",
  "title_text": "Community-level diversity of viral counter-defensomes",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:26:55Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ezzqk3hxjd6x2",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}