OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are domesticated prophages that have been co-opted by their bacterial hosts as conduits for horizontal gene transfer. For gene transfer to occur, DNA-packed GTA particles must lyse their host bacterial cell to escape. The mechanism by which host lysis occurs is not well understood. In my talk, I will tell you about a genetic screen that I performed to discover potential novel lysis genes. We
discovered a new genetic system that is essential for GTA-mediated host lysis. Most interestingly, the system shares some similarity to an anti-phage defence module. I will talk about how this system functions and how it is regulated to ensure that cell lysis is tightly controlled. Overall, our work suggests that prokaryotic immune systems can be repurposed to facilitate horizontal gene transfer.
