NLM DIR Seminar Schedule
UPCOMING SEMINARS
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Feb. 18, 2025 Samuel Lee
Efficient predictions of alternative protein conformations by AlphaFold2-based sequence association -
Feb. 25, 2025 Zhizheng Wang
GeneAgent: Self-verification Language Agent for Gene Set Analysis using Domain Databases -
March 4, 2025 Sofya Garushyants
TBD -
March 11, 2025 Sanasar Babajanyan
TBD -
March 18, 2025 MG Hirsch
TBD
RECENT SEMINARS
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Feb. 11, 2025 Po-Ting Lai
Enhancing Biomedical Relation Extraction with Directionality -
Feb. 4, 2025 Victor Tobiasson
On the dominance of Asgard contributions to Eukaryogenesis -
Jan. 28, 2025 Kaleb Abram
Leveraging metagenomics to investigate the co-occurrence of virome and defensome elements at large scale -
Jan. 21, 2025 Qiao Jin
Artificial Intelligence for Evidence-based Medicine -
Jan. 17, 2025 Xuegong Zhang
Using Large Cellular Models to Understand Cell Transcriptomics Language
Scheduled Seminars on Jan. 14, 2025
In-person: Building 38A/B2N14 NCBI Library or Zoom
Contact NLMDIRSeminarScheduling@mail.nih.gov with questions about this seminar.
Abstract:
Research into antiviral mechanisms in prokaryotic cells has contributed greatly to our understanding of the principles of immunity and virulence in the context of human health, while also producing extremely effective tools for DNA cloning and editing. Members of the YprA-like helicase family are present in abundant and recently described defense systems DISARM, Dpd, and Druantia, as well as DNA repair operons that confer antibiotic resistance. Phylogenetic, genomic neighborhood, and AlphaFold protein structure prediction analysis indicates these proteins are the result of remarkable adaptive radiation. Each of the known defense systems encodes phylogenetically distinct YprA homologs with complex, unique domain architectures not previously recognized. The analysis also reveals novel classes of some of these known systems as well as several major YprA-like branches that have not been reported, each with its own distinguishing features, which we denote ARMADA (DISARM-like antiviral defense array) systems. Previous work in our group focused in detail on CoCoNuT (coiled-coil nuclease tandem) predicted antiviral defense systems. Unexpectedly, we have determined during our analysis of the YprA-like family that Druantia Types II and IV encompass a fourth type of CoCoNuT system. AlphaFold analysis of these experimentally uncharacterized systems detected domains suggesting a complex restriction mechanism related to homing endonucleases, with the CoCoNuT-related factors predicted to contribute an additional RNA-targeting capability.