Community-level diversity of viral counter-defensomes
- 1Genomique Metabolique, Genoscope, Institut Francois Jacob, Commissariat a l Energie Atomique (CEA), CNRS, Universite Evry, Universite Paris-Saclay, 2 Rue Gaston
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.
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BibTeX
@misc{beavogui2026communitylevel,
title = {{Community-level diversity of viral counter-defensomes}},
author = {A. Beavogui and L. da Silva e Silva and I. G. Gomes and L. Doladille and N. Wiart and P. Wincker and P. H. Oliveira},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.10.744029},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744029v2},
note = {CC BY-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Community-level diversity of viral counter-defensomes
AU - A. Beavogui
AU - L. da Silva e Silva
AU - I. G. Gomes
AU - L. Doladille
AU - N. Wiart
AU - P. Wincker
AU - P. H. Oliveira
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/10
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.10.744029
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744029v2
AB - 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.
ER -