Systematic and quantitative view of the antiviral arsenal of prokaryotes

Florian Tesson (1, 2) , Alexandre Hervé , Ernest Mordret (2) , Marie Touchon (3) , Camille D’humières (1) , Jean Cury (2, 4) , Aude Bernheim (1, 2)

1 IAME (UMR_S_1137 / U1137) - Infection, Anti-microbiens, Modélisation, Evolution
2 SEED (UMR-S 1284/U 1284) - Evolution et ingénierie de systèmes dynamiques
3 Génomique évolutive des Microbes / Microbial Evolutionary Genomics
4 LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique

Bacteria and archaea have developed multiple antiviral mechanisms, and genomic evidence indicates that several of these antiviral systems co-occur in the same strain. Here, we introduce DefenseFinder, a tool that automatically detects known antiviral systems in prokaryotic genomes. We use DefenseFinder to analyse 21000 fully sequenced prokaryotic genomes, and find that antiviral strategies vary drastically between phyla, species and strains. Variations in composition of antiviral systems correlate with genome size, viral threat, and lifestyle traits. DefenseFinder will facilitate large-scale genomic analysis of antiviral defense systems and the study of host-virus interactions in prokaryotes.

Domains: Microbiology and Parasitology; Genomics [q-bio.GN]

Florian Tesson, Alexandre Hervé, Ernest Mordret, Marie Touchon, Camille D’humières, et al.. Systematic and quantitative view of the antiviral arsenal of prokaryotes. Nature Communications, 2022, 13 (1), pp.2561. ⟨10.1038/s41467-022-30269-9⟩. ⟨hal-03823827v2⟩