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Bacteria and archaea use a variety of mechanisms to protect themselves against viral infections and the invasion of other mobile genetic elements such as plasmids. Accordingly, viruses evolve resistance to such defense systems. The first prokaryotic antiviral systems known were restriction-modification (RM) systems, and later CRISPR–Cas rose to prominence and earned its discoverers the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Since then, new prokaryotic antiviral systems and corresponding viral countermeasures continue to be discovered, characterized, and repurposed for use in molecular biology or biotechnology.
This Prokaryotic Immunity and Viral Evasion Systems Collection welcomes submissions within this area to Nature Communications, Communications Biology, and Scientific Reports. Some topics of interest include prokaryotic genomics, genetics, cell biology, structural biology, virology, and adaptation of newly discovered proteins as tools.