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Bacterial defences interact synergistically by disrupting phage cooperation
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The constant arms race between bacteria and their phages has resulted in a large diversity of bacterial defence systems 1,2 , with many bacteria carrying several systems 3,4. In response, phages often carry counter-defence genes 5-9. If and how bacterial defence mechanisms interact to protect against phages with counter-defence genes remains unclear. Here, we report the existence of a novel defence system, coined MADS (Methylation Associated Defence System), which is located in a strongly conserved genomic defence hotspot in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and distributed across Gram-positive and Gramnegative bacteria. We find that the natural coexistence of MADS and a Type IE CRISPR-Cas adaptive immune system in the genome of P. aeruginosa SMC4386 provides synergistic levels of protection against phage DMS3, which carries an anti-CRISPR (acr) gene. Previous work has demonstrated that Acr-phages need to cooperate to overcome CRISPR immunity, with a first sacrificial phage causing host immunosuppression to enable successful secondary phage infections 10,11. Modelling and experiments show that the coexistence of MADS and CRISPR-Cas provides strong and durable protection against Acr-phages by disrupting their cooperation and limiting the spread of mutants that overcome MADS. These data reveal that combining bacterial defences can robustly neutralise phage with counter-defence genes, even if each defence on its own can be readily bypassed , which is key to understanding how selection acts on defence combinations and their coevolutionary consequences.
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