Pramalkumar Patel
@pramalpatel
Followers
199
Following
646
Media
1
Statuses
128
Ph.D. Candidate (Maxwell Lab), University of Toronto 🇮🇳🇨🇦. Studying the arms race between bacteria and phages.
Toronto, Ontario
Joined January 2020
I am thrilled to share our work on a novel prophage-encoded phage defence from @theMaxwellLab: Anti-phage defence through inhibition of virion assembly https://t.co/qgzR97s4KH
nature.com
Nature Communications - Bacteria have evolved various defence mechanisms to protect themselves against viral infection. Here, Patel et al. identify a type of antiviral defence that blocks virion...
6
48
132
Happy to share our new preprint describing prophage encoded anti-phage defense system,TERi, that targets the terminase complex of invading phages to inhibit DNA packaging. The system also encode self immunity proteins that protect the prophage. https://t.co/q8kq7sBquR
3
29
84
Our paper out @CellCellPress: Structure-guided discovery of viral proteins that inhibit host immunity Congrats @ErezTzvi, Azita Leavitt, @amitai_gil, our collaborators @ Kranzusch lab, and coauthors A 🧵 1/10 https://t.co/iILYRNZyQx
cell.com
Large-scale, structure-guided computational pipeline sifts through millions of phage proteins to identify those that bind and antagonize host immune proteins. Detected proteins are shown to inhibit...
4
54
189
Did you know that bacteria remember their past for many generations? In this new preprint from us (@VillaniAlexis and Senen Mendoza) and Banin lab (@ShmidovE ), we reveal the "how?" and "why?" underlying a long-standing mystery in bacterial memory.
biorxiv.org
Restriction-modification (R-M) systems, present in most bacterial genomes, protect against phage infection by detecting and degrading invading foreign DNA. However, like many prokaryotic anti-phage...
2
54
163
Happy to share our work in @NatureMicrobiol. Gamma-Mobile-Trio systems are mobile elements rich in bacterial defensive and offensive tools. If you're interested in #Antiphage #T6SS #Vibrio #MGE then this is for you. 🧵1/15 https://t.co/xGDik8ACxT
https://t.co/52j3jbZ3DP
nature.com
Nature Microbiology - GMT-containing genomic islands in Vibrio parahaemolyticus and other diverse bacteria serve as a stockpile of immune and anti-phage defence systems, antibiotic-resistance genes...
8
49
136
"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" Hotel California for #phage on TWiV 1151 #podcast
https://t.co/A6ukTtekVW
@profvrr @theMaxwellLab @pramalpatel
microbe.tv
TWiV reviews polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, viruses with zoonotic potential in farmed fur animals, low HPV vaccination in North Texas associated with high rates of cervical cancer, a large...
1
3
4
Preprint alert 🚨! I present you the second and final manuscript on the BASEL phages! 36 new deeply characterized phages from viral groups that were so far mostly terra incognita - and all infect the E. coli K12 lab strain with easy tricks. 1/12 https://t.co/lqZdYvMkSG
5
75
195
A nice little highlight here in @NatureRevMicro by @cazares_adr and team on our work (+ from the Dechesne lab) rediscovering plasmid-dependent phages! A hundred or so are known (most isolated in the last few years!) and we've only scratched the surface 👀
nature.com
Nature Reviews Microbiology - This Genome Watch highlights how the revived interest in phages that target plasmid-carrying bacteria is expanding our knowledge of viral diversity, ecology and...
3
23
82
An anti-CRISPR that (quite literally) deconstructs #CRISPR – was a pleasure spotlighting this latest discovery from the Davidson Lab in @MolecularCell, with @PeterFineran. Speculation included! https://t.co/LxSD63BTcl
4
15
50
Latest from the lab! PICI and prophage-encoded Tai proteins protect cells by blocking phage tail assembly. Prophages counter with a mechanism allowing tail formation after induction. Defence and counter-defence genes are organised for expression.
nature.com
Nature Communications - Bacterial immune systems can recognize phage structural components to activate diverse antiviral responses. Here, the authors identify a family of bacterial immune systems,...
3
51
140
https://t.co/tq5uL6YUTm Control of lysogeny and antiphage defense by a prophage-encoded kinase-phosphatase module
nature.com
Nature Communications - The ‘Pf’ bacteriophages of Pseudomonas aeruginosa play roles in biofilm formation and virulence. Here, the authors identify a prophage regulatory module, KKP...
0
1
6
🚨 It's out!: There's a new toxin in town.. Chelona Toxin—a promising alternative to diphtheria toxin for targeted drug delivery that bypasses pre-existing antibodies, boosting efficacy and safety for next-gen therapeutics. 🧬 @EmboMolMed
embopress.org
imageimagePre-existing antibodies against diphtheria toxin (DT) from childhood vaccinations limit the efficacy and widespread use of DT-based immunotoxins. A toxin platform retaining the structural...
1
1
8
Out today in @Nature! I am thrilled to share our work on the PARIS immune system in its final published form. Huge thanks to my mentor, Kevin Corbett @_KevinCorbett, and my teammates. See the thread below in comment section for a quick summary! https://t.co/eDJWQUq5z4
14
40
239
Thrilled to share the final version of my postdoc project, out today in @Nature! We investigated the Bil system – a ubiquitin-like antiphage defense system – and discovered a new defense mechanism! More info in the thread below 👇 https://t.co/YSWMDKWHBq
nature.com
Nature - To mitigate phage infection, an antiphage defence system in bacteria conjugates a ubiquitin-like protein to a structural protein of the phage, demonstrating that conjugation of...
14
106
385
Nature research paper: An anti-CRISPR that pulls apart a CRISPR–Cas complex
1
50
129
Check out our new paper at Nature https://t.co/hPfk4PPWwe We found an anti-CRISPR that pulls apart a type I-F CRISPR-Cas complex by binding to the Cas7 subunits and extracting them one at a time. Big Congrats!! to my pdf Chantel Trost who did most of the work.
5
27
93
Check out the latest story from the Sternberg group: phages coopted transposon-encoded nucleases (TnpB) and repurposed them for regulation of host genes! https://t.co/tN9zvFZ5Ki Thrilled to see this work in print, & a huge thanks to my amazing co-authors!!
nature.com
Nature - RNA-guided transcription factors arose repeatedly via the domestication of transposon-encoded tnpB genes, representing a parallel evolutionary path to CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity.
6
42
131
A picture is worth 1536 plaque assays. While we used a robot, we also tried a dirt-cheap 3D-printed alternative which works wonders at 384-density. I really believe this pre-print has the potentially to be the largest impact I will make on my field. https://t.co/49LaoV1fMD
5
52
201
Thrilled to see this one out! It's been so much fun to go over so many great papers from the last years 🙏🏼
Going viral: The role of mobile genetic elements in bacterial immunity @BeatrizBeamud @FabBenz @dbikard review work revealing that most bacterial defense systems are carried by mobile elements, indicating complex evolutionary forces driving immunity https://t.co/iLMpbZpoa5
9
45
170
Excited to share my preprint from @aaronwhiteley lab showing how a bacterial NLR-related protein detects phages through the host chaperone DnaJ! This is one of the few ssRNA phage defense systems identified, and we found an interesting detection mechanism https://t.co/5PpN8Cr7X2
biorxiv.org
Bacteria encode a wide range of antiphage systems and a subset of these proteins are homologous to components of the human innate immune system. Mammalian nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat...
3
15
50
Our paper on the mechanism of phage sensing and restriction by toxin-antitoxin-chaperone (TAC) systems is out in @cellhostmicrobe! We study two antiphage TACs: HigBAC and CmdTAC. @gem__atkinson @HenrikStrahl @AHarms485 @medfak_LU @lunduniversity
https://t.co/yjThAzxX86
cell.com
Toxin-antitoxin-chaperone (TAC) systems have been shown to mediate antiphage defense via as-yet unexplored mechanisms. Focusing on two TACs encoded by Escherichia coli prophages—HigBAC and CmdTAC—M...
6
27
92