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Filament assembly powers NbaSPARDA in bacterial defense

Beibei Wang^1,† , Qiunan Jin^1,† , Hui Yang^1,*

¹Key Laboratory of RNA Innovation, Science and Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
^†These authors contributed equally: Beibei Wang, Qiunan Jin
* Correspondence: Hui Yang(yanghui@sibcb.ac.cn)

The SPARDA system, a short Argonaute-based bacterial defense mechanism, employs guide RNA to recognize invading complementary DNA and degrade both invader and the host genome, leading to cell death or dormancy. A recent paper published in Cell Research elucidated the activation mechanism of Novosphingopyxis baekryungensis NbaSPARDA by capturing cryo-EM snapshots, demonstrating that guide RNA–target DNA heteroduplex formation triggers filament assembly and subsequent activation of collateral nuclease activity on environmental nucleic acids.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-025-01131-6

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