Work

From Natural Defense to Synthetic Application: Emerging Bacterial Anti-Phage Mechanisms and Their Potential in Industrial Fermentation

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Bacteriophage contamination remains a persistent and costly challenge in industrial bio-manufacturing. Traditional control strategies rely heavily on physical exclusion and chemical disinfection, yet these passive measures often fail to address the rapid evolutionary adaptation of phages and their persistence in complex fermentation environments. Recent genomic and biochemical discoveries have revealed a diverse arsenal of bacterial antiviral immune systems beyond the classical Restriction-Modification and CRISPR-Cas pathways, including cyclic oligonucleotide-based signaling systems and various abortive infection mechanisms. This review systematically summarizes the latest advances in bacterial anti-phage defense mechanisms, categorizing them into adsorption inhibition, replication interference, nucleic acid degradation, and population-level suicide defense. Furthermore, we discuss the application of synthetic biology in integrating these defense modules to construct broad-spectrum “pan-immune” microbial chassis. This active defense strategy offers a fundamental solution to phage predation and provides a theoretical basis for developing robust next-generation cell factories.

Source: Fermentation

DOI: 10.3390/fermentation12010017

Authors: Hengwei Zhang, Jiajia You, Guomin Li, Zhiming Rao, Xian Zhang

Institution: Jiangnan University

Language: English

Topic: Bacteriophages and microbial interactions

Subfield: Ecology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,534

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Jiangnan University, State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, National Key Research and Development Program of China