A phiKMV ligase-dependent DNA repair mechanism that mitigates DNA-targeting nucleases
Alexis Villani, Shweta Karambelkar, Nandini Pathak, Rhea Kamath, Sutharsan Govindarajan, Bálint Csörgő, Nikolai Varnavski, Joseph Bondy‐Denomy
The paper identifies a DNA repair mechanism in phages that allows them to resist CRISPR-Cas and R-M systems by repairing nuclease-induced breaks via a ligase-dependent process.
bioRxiv · Sep 23, 2026 · PreprintMicrobiology