Bacterial cell division protein FtsZ complexes with a phage protein to activate bacterial immunity
Tong Zhang, Anastasiia Nadieina, Carl B. W. Soderstrom, Julia E. Ramseyer, Christina R. Beck, Kyo Coppieters ‘t Wallant, Chloé Martens, Abel Garcia-Pino, Michael T. Laub · 2026
Read Bacterial cell division protein FtsZ complexes with a phage protein to activate bacterial immunity by Tong Zhang, Anastasiia Nadieina, Carl B. W. Soderstrom, Julia E. Ramseyer, Christina R. Beck, Kyo Coppieters ‘t Wallant, Chloé Martens, Abel Garcia-Pino, Michael T. Laub (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13423816.txt.
Description
Tong Zhang and eight colleagues reveal how a bacterial defence protein detects virus attack only when a phage protein and a host protein arrive together. Many bacterial immune systems fire on spotting one specific viral protein; this one, a fused toxin–antitoxin called CapRelEbc, ignores both partners alone.
During infection by phage T7, its protein Gp0.4 grabs FtsZ, the host's cell-division protein, freezing division. That trapped pair is exactly what CapRelEbc senses, switching on its toxin. Structural modelling and exchange measurements show all three proteins locked in one complex. The authors liken the logic to plant and animal immunity, where damage to host machinery, rather than the invader itself, raises the alarm.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Tong Zhang, Anastasiia Nadieina, Carl B. W. Soderstrom, Julia E. Ramseyer, Christina R. Beck, Kyo Coppieters ‘t Wallant, Chloé Martens, Abel Garcia-Pino, Michael T. Laub |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 70558 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |