Antiviral immunity via telomerase-like reverse transcription in bacteria.

A new bacterial antiviral defense system, DRT10, employs a telomerase-like reverse transcription mechanism to produce tandem DNA repeats using ncRNA templates.

• Why it matters: Understanding bacterial antiviral strategies is crucial for insights into microbial immunity and potential biotechnological applications, as many DRT functions remain unknown.
• What they did: Researchers identified DRT10, characterized its association with ncRNA, and used cryo-EM and biochemical experiments to reveal a 2:1 RT architecture that synthesizes long repetitive DNA products.
• The result: The findings suggest a conserved mechanism of RNA-templated DNA repeat addition across domains of life, expanding the known diversity of reverse transcription strategies for bacterial antiviral defense.