Comparative and Evolutionary genomics lab led by Dr. Arunkumar Krishnan at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (Berhampur, India) from the Department of Biological Sciences describes a comprehensive study of the bacterial antiviral defense systems DndABCDE and DndFGH through the application of in-depth sequence-structure analysis and comparative genomics methodologies. Initially, DndABCDE was regarded as a DNA phosphorothioate modification system, while DndFGH was thought to represent its corresponding restriction component, albeit with numerous enigmatic and paradoxical features. However, the findings in this study comprehensively resolved the conundrum and established that these two systems are not tightly linked and should instead be recognized as independent antiphage defense systems.

Link - https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad1213