---
OA_type: closed access
_id: '21996'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Osterman et al. discover aRES,1 a new
family of bacterial immune proteins that deplete cellular NAD+, generating cleavage
products that cannot be utilized by canonical phage NAD+ regeneration pathways.
They identify the invader-specific trigger for aRES and characterize two distinct
evolutionary countermeasures employed by phages to resist aRES.
acknowledgement: This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (10.55776/PAT1617625).
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Daniel
full_name: Williams-Jones, Daniel
id: 128eaab9-b327-11f0-bdbe-e02d5abac73b
last_name: Williams-Jones
- first_name: Jack Peter Kelly
full_name: Bravo, Jack Peter Kelly
id: 96aecfa5-8931-11ee-af30-aa6a5d6eee0e
last_name: Bravo
orcid: 0000-0003-0456-0753
citation:
ama: 'Williams-Jones D, Bravo JPK. NAD to the bone: How bacteria put phages under
aRES-t … and how phages fight back. Cell Host & Microbe. 2026;34(6):978-980.
doi:10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013'
apa: 'Williams-Jones, D., & Bravo, J. P. K. (2026). NAD to the bone: How bacteria
put phages under aRES-t … and how phages fight back. Cell Host & Microbe.
Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013'
chicago: 'Williams-Jones, Daniel, and Jack Peter Kelly Bravo. “NAD to the Bone:
How Bacteria Put Phages under ARES-t … and How Phages Fight Back.” Cell Host
& Microbe. Elsevier, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013.'
ieee: 'D. Williams-Jones and J. P. K. Bravo, “NAD to the bone: How bacteria put
phages under aRES-t … and how phages fight back,” Cell Host & Microbe,
vol. 34, no. 6. Elsevier, pp. 978–980, 2026.'
ista: 'Williams-Jones D, Bravo JPK. 2026. NAD to the bone: How bacteria put phages
under aRES-t … and how phages fight back. Cell Host & Microbe. 34(6), 978–980.'
mla: 'Williams-Jones, Daniel, and Jack Peter Kelly Bravo. “NAD to the Bone: How
Bacteria Put Phages under ARES-t … and How Phages Fight Back.” Cell Host &
Microbe, vol. 34, no. 6, Elsevier, 2026, pp. 978–80, doi:10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013.'
short: D. Williams-Jones, J.P.K. Bravo, Cell Host & Microbe 34 (2026) 978–980.
corr_author: '1'
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-06-14T22:01:42Z
date_published: 2026-06-10T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-09-16T07:35:26Z
day: '10'
department:
- _id: JaBr
doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013
external_id:
pmid:
- '42269584'
fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013
intvolume: ' 34'
issue: '6'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '06'
oa_version: None
page: 978-980
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 9f295cab-ad08-11f1-bc83-9e197d0f6d50
grant_number: PAT1617625
name: 'Search & Destroy: Mechanisms of anti-plasmid immunity'
publication: Cell Host & Microbe
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 1934-6069
issn:
- 1931-3128
publication_status: published
publisher: Elsevier
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: 'NAD to the bone: How bacteria put phages under aRES-t … and how phages fight
back'
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 34
year: '2026'
...
---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '22941'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Argonaute proteins mediate RNA interference in eukaryotes and nucleic‐acid
defence in prokaryotes. Although these systems operate in distinct biological
contexts and produce diverse downstream outcomes, they share a conserved structural
architecture and mechanism of guide‐dependent target recognition. Here, we argue
that Argonautes function as programmable surveillance platforms that kinetically
sample nucleic acids, engage targets through sequential pairing and conformational
checkpoints, and couple recognition to functional outputs through regulated structural
transitions. Rather than representing distinct recognition mechanisms, the diverse
targeting behaviours observed across Argonaute families reflect different implementations
of this shared framework, in which guide biogenesis, target accessibility, pairing
requirements and effector coupling are weighted differently according to biological
context. Viewing Argonautes through this common operational logic reconciles apparent
differences in specificity, mismatch tolerance and target selection across systems,
while providing a unified conceptual framework for understanding their evolution
and guiding the engineering of programmable nucleic‐acid recognition technologies.
acknowledgement: I would like to thank K. Kiernan and F. Alcon for insightful comments
and feedback. We acknowledge support from ISTA and from the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF) (10.55776/PAT1617625). The author used Claude (Anthropic) to assist with improving
the clarity and readability of portions of the manuscript. All scientific content,
interpretation and conclusions were conceived, verified and approved by the author,
who takes full responsibility for the final manuscript. Open Access funding provided
by Institute of Science and Technology Austria.
article_number: 1873-3468.70450
article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal)
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Jack Peter Kelly
full_name: Bravo, Jack Peter Kelly
id: 96aecfa5-8931-11ee-af30-aa6a5d6eee0e
last_name: Bravo
orcid: 0000-0003-0456-0753
citation:
ama: Bravo JPK. ‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes recognize targets across
domains of life. FEBS Letters. 2026. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.70450
apa: Bravo, J. P. K. (2026). ‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes recognize targets
across domains of life. FEBS Letters. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.70450
chicago: Bravo, Jack Peter Kelly. “‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes Recognize
Targets across Domains of Life.” FEBS Letters. Wiley, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.70450.
ieee: J. P. K. Bravo, “‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes recognize targets
across domains of life,” FEBS Letters. Wiley, 2026.
ista: Bravo JPK. 2026. ‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes recognize targets
across domains of life. FEBS Letters., 1873–3468.70450.
mla: Bravo, Jack Peter Kelly. “‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes Recognize
Targets across Domains of Life.” FEBS Letters, 1873–3468.70450, Wiley,
2026, doi:10.1002/1873-3468.70450.
short: J.P.K. Bravo, FEBS Letters (2026).
corr_author: '1'
das_tickbox: '0'
date_created: 2026-09-17T09:31:02Z
date_published: 2026-09-08T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-09-17T11:48:51Z
day: '08'
ddc:
- '570'
department:
- _id: JaBr
doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.70450
external_id:
pmid:
- '42711859'
fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.70450
has_accepted_license: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
url: https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.70450
month: '09'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 9f295cab-ad08-11f1-bc83-9e197d0f6d50
grant_number: PAT1617625
name: 'Search & Destroy: Mechanisms of anti-plasmid immunity'
publication: FEBS Letters
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 1873-3468
issn:
- 0014-5793
publication_status: epub_ahead
publisher: Wiley
quality_controlled: '1'
researchdata_availability: no
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
supplementarymaterial: no
title: ‘Guide and Prejudice’ - How Argonautes recognize targets across domains of
life
tmp:
image: /images/cc_by.png
legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
year: '2026'
...