[{"volume":21,"citation":{"mla":"Nikolic, Nela, et al. “A Bacterial Toxin-Antitoxin System as a Native Defence Element against RNA Phages.” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 21, no. 6, 20250080, The Royal Society, 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080\">10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080</a>.","short":"N. Nikolic, M. Pleska, T. Bergmiller, C.C. Guet, Biology Letters 21 (2025).","chicago":"Nikolic, Nela, Maros Pleska, Tobias Bergmiller, and Calin C Guet. “A Bacterial Toxin-Antitoxin System as a Native Defence Element against RNA Phages.” <i>Biology Letters</i>. The Royal Society, 2025. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080</a>.","ista":"Nikolic N, Pleska M, Bergmiller T, Guet CC. 2025. A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system as a native defence element against RNA phages. Biology Letters. 21(6), 20250080.","ieee":"N. Nikolic, M. Pleska, T. Bergmiller, and C. C. Guet, “A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system as a native defence element against RNA phages,” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 21, no. 6. The Royal Society, 2025.","apa":"Nikolic, N., Pleska, M., Bergmiller, T., &#38; Guet, C. C. (2025). A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system as a native defence element against RNA phages. <i>Biology Letters</i>. The Royal Society. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080</a>","ama":"Nikolic N, Pleska M, Bergmiller T, Guet CC. A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system as a native defence element against RNA phages. <i>Biology Letters</i>. 2025;21(6). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080\">10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080</a>"},"project":[{"_id":"25681D80-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"International IST Postdoc Fellowship Programme","grant_number":"291734","call_identifier":"FP7"},{"grant_number":"V00738","_id":"26956E74-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems as antiphage defense mechanisms","call_identifier":"FWF"}],"intvolume":"        21","day":"11","article_number":"20250080","author":[{"id":"42D9CABC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Nikolic","first_name":"Nela","full_name":"Nikolic, Nela","orcid":"0000-0001-9068-6090"},{"first_name":"Maros","id":"4569785E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Pleska","full_name":"Pleska, Maros","orcid":"0000-0001-7460-7479"},{"first_name":"Tobias","last_name":"Bergmiller","id":"2C471CFA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0001-5396-4346","full_name":"Bergmiller, Tobias"},{"last_name":"Guet","id":"47F8433E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Calin C","full_name":"Guet, Calin C","orcid":"0000-0001-6220-2052"}],"abstract":[{"text":"Bacteria have evolved a wide range of defence strategies to protect themselves against bacterial viruses (phages). Most known bacterial antiphage defence systems target phages with DNA genomes, which raises the question of how bacteria defend against phages with RNA genomes. Bacterial toxin–antitoxin systems that cleave intracellular RNA could potentially protect bacteria against RNA phages, but this has not been explored experimentally. In this study, we investigated the role of a model toxin–antitoxin system, MazEF, in protecting Escherichia coli against two RNA phage species. When challenged with these phages, the native presence of mazEF moderately reduced population susceptibility and increased the survival of individual E. coli cells. Genomic analysis further revealed an underrepresentation of the MazF cleavage site in genomes of RNA phages infecting E. coli, indicating selection against cleavage. These results show that, in addition to other physiological roles, RNA-degrading toxin–antitoxin systems may also help defend against RNA phages.","lang":"eng"}],"date_updated":"2025-09-30T13:38:08Z","title":"A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system as a native defence element against RNA phages","date_created":"2025-06-22T22:02:06Z","year":"2025","article_processing_charge":"Yes (via OA deal)","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by.png","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","short":"CC BY (4.0)"},"article_type":"original","external_id":{"isi":["001505019800001"],"pmid":["40494395"]},"oa":1,"acknowledgement":"This work was supported by ISTFELLOW (People Program – Marie Curie Actions of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program FP7 under REA grant agreement 291734), the FWF (Austrian Science Fund) Elise Richter Program project number V 738 and the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award (WT105618MA), to N.N. M.P. was a Simons Foundation Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation. We are grateful to Kathrin Tomasek, Lisa Butt, Chris Estell, Alys Jepson, Franklin Nobrega, Stefano Pagliara, Remy Chait, Steve West, Vicki Gold, Josh Eaton, Ivana Gudelj and Rob Beardmore for useful discussions and technical support, as well as to Robin Wright, Christian Fitch and Ben Temperton for sharing equipment. We thank Laurence Van Melderen for sharing the strains. We acknowledge the IST Austria Lab Support Facility, LSI Technical Services Team at the University of Exeter and the Translational Research Exchange @ Exeter (TREE) network. N.N. is grateful to Fabrice Gielen for his support.","oa_version":"Published Version","_id":"19857","scopus_import":"1","isi":1,"ddc":["570"],"month":"06","type":"journal_article","publisher":"The Royal Society","user_id":"317138e5-6ab7-11ef-aa6d-ffef3953e345","publication_status":"published","publication":"Biology Letters","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"ec_funded":1,"department":[{"_id":"CaGu"}],"OA_place":"publisher","fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080","OA_type":"hybrid","file":[{"file_id":"19873","date_updated":"2025-06-23T11:34:39Z","creator":"dernst","access_level":"open_access","file_name":"2025_BiologyLetters_Nikolic.pdf","checksum":"016f644ed068f8609ded306ad26dbd3f","file_size":1850797,"relation":"main_file","success":1,"content_type":"application/pdf","date_created":"2025-06-23T11:34:39Z"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1744-957X"],"issn":["1744-9561"]},"doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0080","quality_controlled":"1","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"corr_author":"1","issue":"6","status":"public","file_date_updated":"2025-06-23T11:34:39Z","pmid":1,"date_published":"2025-06-11T00:00:00Z","has_accepted_license":"1"},{"issue":"5","status":"public","file_date_updated":"2021-05-25T14:09:03Z","pmid":1,"has_accepted_license":"1","date_published":"2021-05-12T00:00:00Z","department":[{"_id":"NiBa"}],"ec_funded":1,"fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1744-957X"]},"file":[{"access_level":"open_access","creator":"kschuh","date_updated":"2021-05-25T14:09:03Z","file_id":"9425","checksum":"9c13c1f5af7609c97c741f11d293188a","file_size":726759,"file_name":"2021_BiologyLetters_Lagator.pdf","success":1,"relation":"main_file","date_created":"2021-05-25T14:09:03Z","content_type":"application/pdf"}],"corr_author":"1","quality_controlled":"1","publisher":"Royal Society of London","type":"journal_article","publication":"Biology letters","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"user_id":"ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd","publication_status":"published","isi":1,"_id":"9410","oa_version":"Published Version","scopus_import":"1","ddc":["570"],"month":"05","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by.png","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","short":"CC BY (4.0)"},"oa":1,"external_id":{"pmid":[" 33975485"],"isi":["000651501400001"]},"acknowledgement":"We would like to thank Martin Ackermann, Camilo Barbosa, Nick Barton, Jonathan Bollback, Sebastian Bonhoeffer, Nick Colegrave, Calin Guet, Alex Hall, Sally Otto, Tiago Paixao, Srdjan Sarikas, Hinrich Schulenburg, Marjon de Vos and Michael Whitlock for insightful support.","date_created":"2021-05-23T22:01:43Z","year":"2021","article_processing_charge":"No","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Antibiotic concentrations vary dramatically in the body and the environment. Hence, understanding the dynamics of resistance evolution along antibiotic concentration gradients is critical for predicting and slowing the emergence and spread of resistance. While it has been shown that increasing the concentration of an antibiotic slows resistance evolution, how adaptation to one antibiotic concentration correlates with fitness at other points along the gradient has not received much attention. Here, we selected populations of Escherichia coli at several points along a concentration gradient for three different antibiotics, asking how rapidly resistance evolved and whether populations became specialized to the antibiotic concentration they were selected on. Populations selected at higher concentrations evolved resistance more slowly but exhibited equal or higher fitness across the whole gradient. Populations selected at lower concentrations evolved resistance rapidly, but overall fitness in the presence of antibiotics was lower. However, these populations readily adapted to higher concentrations upon subsequent selection. Our results indicate that resistance management strategies must account not only for the rates of resistance evolution but also for the fitness of evolved strains."}],"author":[{"full_name":"Lagator, Mato","last_name":"Lagator","id":"345D25EC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Mato"},{"id":"2DB8F68A-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Uecker","first_name":"Hildegard","orcid":"0000-0001-9435-2813","full_name":"Uecker, Hildegard"},{"last_name":"Neve","first_name":"Paul","full_name":"Neve, Paul"}],"date_updated":"2026-04-02T14:02:44Z","title":"Adaptation at different points along antibiotic concentration gradients","intvolume":"        17","citation":{"ieee":"M. Lagator, H. Uecker, and P. Neve, “Adaptation at different points along antibiotic concentration gradients,” <i>Biology letters</i>, vol. 17, no. 5. Royal Society of London, 2021.","apa":"Lagator, M., Uecker, H., &#38; Neve, P. (2021). Adaptation at different points along antibiotic concentration gradients. <i>Biology Letters</i>. Royal Society of London. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913</a>","ista":"Lagator M, Uecker H, Neve P. 2021. Adaptation at different points along antibiotic concentration gradients. Biology letters. 17(5), 20200913.","chicago":"Lagator, Mato, Hildegard Uecker, and Paul Neve. “Adaptation at Different Points along Antibiotic Concentration Gradients.” <i>Biology Letters</i>. Royal Society of London, 2021. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913</a>.","mla":"Lagator, Mato, et al. “Adaptation at Different Points along Antibiotic Concentration Gradients.” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 17, no. 5, 20200913, Royal Society of London, 2021, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913\">10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913</a>.","short":"M. Lagator, H. Uecker, P. Neve, Biology Letters 17 (2021).","ama":"Lagator M, Uecker H, Neve P. Adaptation at different points along antibiotic concentration gradients. <i>Biology letters</i>. 2021;17(5). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913\">10.1098/rsbl.2020.0913</a>"},"project":[{"call_identifier":"FP7","grant_number":"250152","name":"Limits to selection in biology and in evolutionary computation","_id":"25B07788-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425"}],"volume":17,"day":"12","article_number":"20200913"},{"abstract":[{"text":"Fitness interactions between mutations can influence a population’s evolution in many different ways. While epistatic effects are difficult to measure precisely, important information is captured by the mean and variance of log fitnesses for individuals carrying different numbers of mutations. We derive predictions for these quantities from a class of simple fitness landscapes, based on models of optimizing selection on quantitative traits. We also explore extensions to the models, including modular pleiotropy, variable effect sizes, mutational bias and maladaptation of the wild type. We illustrate our approach by reanalysing a large dataset of mutant effects in a yeast snoRNA (small nucleolar RNA). Though characterized by some large epistatic effects, these data give a good overall fit to the non-epistatic null model, suggesting that epistasis might have limited influence on the evolutionary dynamics in this system. We also show how the amount of epistasis depends on both the underlying fitness landscape and the distribution of mutations, and so is expected to vary in consistent ways between new mutations, standing variation and fixed mutations.","lang":"eng"}],"author":[{"first_name":"Christelle","last_name":"Fraisse","id":"32DF5794-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0001-8441-5075","full_name":"Fraisse, Christelle"},{"full_name":"Welch, John J.","first_name":"John J.","last_name":"Welch"}],"date_updated":"2026-06-18T19:05:03Z","title":"The distribution of epistasis on simple fitness landscapes","volume":15,"intvolume":"        15","citation":{"ieee":"C. Fraisse and J. J. Welch, “The distribution of epistasis on simple fitness landscapes,” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 15, no. 4. Royal Society of London, 2019.","apa":"Fraisse, C., &#38; Welch, J. J. (2019). The distribution of epistasis on simple fitness landscapes. <i>Biology Letters</i>. Royal Society of London. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881</a>","ista":"Fraisse C, Welch JJ. 2019. The distribution of epistasis on simple fitness landscapes. Biology Letters. 15(4), 0881.","chicago":"Fraisse, Christelle, and John J. Welch. “The Distribution of Epistasis on Simple Fitness Landscapes.” <i>Biology Letters</i>. Royal Society of London, 2019. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881</a>.","short":"C. Fraisse, J.J. Welch, Biology Letters 15 (2019).","mla":"Fraisse, Christelle, and John J. Welch. “The Distribution of Epistasis on Simple Fitness Landscapes.” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 15, no. 4, 0881, Royal Society of London, 2019, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881\">10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881</a>.","ama":"Fraisse C, Welch JJ. The distribution of epistasis on simple fitness landscapes. <i>Biology Letters</i>. 2019;15(4). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881\">10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881</a>"},"project":[{"grant_number":"291734","name":"International IST Postdoc Fellowship Programme","_id":"25681D80-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"FP7"}],"day":"03","article_number":"0881","article_type":"original","external_id":{"pmid":["31014191"],"isi":["000465405300010"]},"oa":1,"year":"2019","date_created":"2019-05-19T21:59:15Z","article_processing_charge":"No","type":"journal_article","publisher":"Royal Society of London","main_file_link":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881","open_access":"1"}],"related_material":{"record":[{"status":"public","id":"9799","relation":"research_data"},{"relation":"research_data","id":"9798","status":"public"}],"link":[{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4461008","relation":"supplementary_material"}]},"user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","publication_status":"published","publication":"Biology Letters","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"oa_version":"Published Version","_id":"6467","scopus_import":"1","isi":1,"month":"04","ddc":["570"],"status":"public","issue":"4","pmid":1,"date_published":"2019-04-03T00:00:00Z","ec_funded":1,"department":[{"_id":"BeVi"},{"_id":"NiBa"}],"fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2018.0881","publication_identifier":{"issn":["1744-9561"],"eissn":["1744-957X"]},"quality_controlled":"1"},{"publication_status":"published","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publication":"Biology Letters","type":"journal_article","publisher":"The Royal Society","month":"12","oa_version":"None","_id":"3907","page":"670 - 673","date_published":"2008-12-23T00:00:00Z","pmid":1,"issue":"6","status":"public","quality_controlled":"1","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1744-957X"],"issn":["1744-9561"]},"OA_type":"closed access","fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355","title":"Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants","extern":"1","date_updated":"2026-06-02T08:58:39Z","author":[{"first_name":"Masaki","last_name":"Suefuji","full_name":"Suefuji, Masaki"},{"first_name":"Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia"},{"first_name":"Jan","last_name":"Oettler","full_name":"Oettler, Jan"},{"first_name":"Jürgen","last_name":"Heinze","full_name":"Heinze, Jürgen"}],"abstract":[{"text":"Wingless males of the ant genus Cardiocondyla engage in fatal fighting for access to female sexual nestmates. Older, heavily sclerotized males are usually capable of eliminating all younger rivals, whose cuticle is still soft. In Cardiocondyla sp. A, this type of local mate competition (LMC) has turned the standard pattern of brood production of social insects upside down, in that mother queens in multi-queen colonies produce extremely long-lived sons very early in the life cycle of the colony. Here, we investigated the emergence pattern of sexuals in two species with LMC, in which males are much less long-lived. Queens of Cardiocondyla obscurior and Cardiocondyla minutior reared their first sons significantly earlier in multi-queen than in single-queen societies. In addition, first female sexuals also emerged earlier in multi-queen colonies, so that early males had mating opportunities. Hence, the timing of sexual production appears to be well predicted by evolutionary theory, in particular by local mate and queen–queen competition. ","lang":"eng"}],"publist_id":"2248","day":"23","volume":4,"intvolume":"         4","citation":{"ama":"Suefuji M, Cremer S, Oettler J, Heinze J. Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants. <i>Biology Letters</i>. 2008;4(6):670-673. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355\">10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355</a>","short":"M. Suefuji, S. Cremer, J. Oettler, J. Heinze, Biology Letters 4 (2008) 670–673.","mla":"Suefuji, Masaki, et al. “Queen Number Influences the Timing of the Sexual Production in Colonies of Cardiocondyla Ants.” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 4, no. 6, The Royal Society, 2008, pp. 670–73, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355\">10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355</a>.","chicago":"Suefuji, Masaki, Sylvia Cremer, Jan Oettler, and Jürgen Heinze. “Queen Number Influences the Timing of the Sexual Production in Colonies of Cardiocondyla Ants.” <i>Biology Letters</i>. The Royal Society, 2008. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355</a>.","ista":"Suefuji M, Cremer S, Oettler J, Heinze J. 2008. Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants. Biology Letters. 4(6), 670–673.","ieee":"M. Suefuji, S. Cremer, J. Oettler, and J. Heinze, “Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants,” <i>Biology Letters</i>, vol. 4, no. 6. The Royal Society, pp. 670–673, 2008.","apa":"Suefuji, M., Cremer, S., Oettler, J., &#38; Heinze, J. (2008). Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants. <i>Biology Letters</i>. The Royal Society. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355\">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355</a>"},"external_id":{"pmid":["18700195"]},"article_type":"original","article_processing_charge":"No","date_created":"2018-12-11T12:05:49Z","year":"2008"}]