3rd mobile genetic element workshop in UK gonna happen on 15th-16th June! Wanna present your work? Wanna chat with lovely people? Wanna win the best Karaoke singer prize? Click the registration link below😉 Audience are ready in the front seats! https://t.co/XN8zzbHSE8

Excited to share my first postdoc work on anti-phage defense! Huge thanks to collaborators Thomas, Yi ⁦@ugobananas_uuu⁩ , Roman, and co-supervisor Franklin Nobrega @NobregaFL for the amazing Kiwa functional investigation. Thanks to the Patel lab!👏

5) When phages with Gam infect the cells with both systems, these systems can complement each other to make sure phages got killed. This explains why bacteria keep systems for similar function. My previous work showing bacterial defence systems have synergistic antiphage activity

3) KwaA senses the membrane shape change and recruits KwaB to bind invader DNA to block their replication. 4) DNA mimic protein Gam from phage lambda can inhibit either Kiwa or RecBCD.

1) Kiwa is an powerful system that blocks both phage infection and plasmid conjugation. 2) KwaA and KwaB forms a supercomplex to sense the membrane shape change caused by phage adsorption or plasmid conjugation.

Another work comes! 🥳🥳 Nice to work with Zhiying, Thomas and Roman to characterize the Kiwa mechanism! The overlapping interaction between Kiwa and RecBCD showcases another layer of bacterial defence systems' interaction:) https://t.co/6CRCicKHn3

- tmn (a P-loop NTPase) can synergize with other ATPase domain-containing systems e.g. Gabija, Septu and PrrC.

- we also observed the cells contain both systems lost a system sometimes when exposed to a phage that it didn't show synergistic protection. - the repertoire of defense systems in bacteria is likely shaped by the phages or environmental factors.

- in a population of cells with single systems and its combination, the cells with both systems survived better when the population was exposed to the phage that it shows synergy. When eposed to phages that the combination has no synergy, single system sometimes survived better.

We observed - the co-occurrence of defense systems are common, and it can become mutal exclusive in other species or order. - both co-occurring and mutual exclusive pairs can provide synergistic anti-phage activity, which depends on which phage they are exposed to.

A big update on the work about the synergistic interaction between bacterial defense systems❗❗❗ After a year, we explored the bacterial defense systems interaction further! Thanks @garushyants and @NobregaFL! https://t.co/G67GMVxpWw

BREAKING: Japan begins releasing treated nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean, a controversial process that could last about 30 years https://t.co/mew1sd6gOQ

Special thanks to my friends who I stood up at least once. Thanks for not punching me 😘

Thanks all the support from the boss @NobregaFL and the team! Running for more experiments 😊