Ubiquitination is a central regulatory mechanism in eukaryotic cell biology, governing processes ranging from protein turnover to antiviral defense. In bacteria, the conjugation of ubiquitin-like proteins is emerging as a core function of diverse anti-phage defenses, including systems with evolutionary links to the human antiviral ISG15 pathway. Recent research has uncovered a divergent bacterial ubiquitination system with altered conjugation chemistry, but its biological function has remained unclear. Here, we show that this non-canonical ubiquitination pathway provides robust defense against a diverse range of bacteriophages. Combining genetic, bioinformatic, and biochemical analyses, we demonstrate that ubiquitin modification of phage lateral tail fibers impairs virion assembly, thereby preventing viral spread throughout the population. Together, our findings establish the immune function of a divergent ubiquitination pathway and reveal that covalent remodeling of viral structural proteins is a conserved antiviral strategy employed across diverse ubiquitination systems and domains of life. <\/p>\n
Speaker<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \ud83c\udfa4 David Mayo Mu\u00f1oz, Ph.D.<\/span><\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Invitation from Dr. Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique Le Roux<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The recent discovery of ubiquitination systems in bacteria is revolutionizing our understanding of antiviral defense mechanisms. Although ubiquitination has long been recognized as a central process in eukaryotes, its role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-17842","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nPostdoctoral Fellow, Department of Microbiology<\/span>
\nDepartment of Biology, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ci2bmontreal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/David-Mayo-Munoz-Ph.D-300x300.webp\")
<\/p>\n