I'm so happy to see the main part of my PhD work published in Cell Host & Microbe! We discover and characterise MADS (Methylation Associated Defense System) in its native host, a clinical isolate of 𝘗𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢 strain SMC4386 www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... - ThreadSky

alicemaestri.bsky.social • 202 days ago

I'm so happy to see the main part of my PhD work published in Cell Host & Microbe!
We discover and characterise MADS (Methylation Associated Defense System) in its native host, a clinical isolate of 𝘗𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢 strain SMC4386
https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(24)00264-6

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acritschristoph.bsky.social•202 days ago

So happy I caught your thread, really awesome paper on a cool system!

We have a Pseudomonas strain that also has a MADS (or maybe MADS-like?) system, that doesn't seem to interfere with plasmid transformation. Haven't knocked it out, but strain has high efficiency. Think not all are anti-plasmid?

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

Thank you Alex for your message! I assume the plasmids you used have the MADS target sequence? Yes knocking it out would help to make comparisons and see if the system is functioning :)

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

How we found it: we wanted to study phage DMS3 and Type IE CRISPR-Cas interactions. Despite phage has functional anti-CRISPR gene, we saw no phage epidemics (even at high MOI) or lysogenization (unlike for the pos ctrl PA14)
so we hypothesized another system may be involved 👀

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

Using Tn5 mutagenesis we detected MADS as an 8 gene system, with domains shared with other systems, which is common.
These include:
- N6 methyltransferase domain
- serine/threonine kinase domain
- RM specificity subunit
- Dnd-like proteins
- DNA binding and nuclease domains

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

Assays in solid and liquid media show MADS protects against phage infection, with ~100 fold increase in EOP and reduced bacterial growth when MADS is absent

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

MADS protects also against plasmids and other phages

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

MADS is found in 0.3% of the RefSeq genomes, only in Bacteria, and is phylogenetically widespread, occurring in Gram+ and Gram-.
It is located within a genomic hotspot with conserved boundaries

alicemaestri.bsky.social•202 days ago

Within this hotspot, in other strains we also found systems seemingly akin to MADS, which we describe as MADS-like

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