Bil system

traitmech:000369 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A phage defense system in which an organism possesses a Bil bacterial ubiquitin-like conjugation locus that can covalently attach a ubiquitin-like protein to the bacteriophage central tail fibre and impair phage infectivity.

Trait evidence (6)

DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5
Bil antiphage defence system

Hor et al. identify Bil as a ubiquitin-like conjugation antiphage defense system.
DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5
phage central tail fibre is obstructed by the covalently attached ubiquitin-like protein

Hor et al. show that the Bil system obstructs the phage central tail fibre with a covalently attached ubiquitin-like protein.
DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5
These phages show severely impaired infectivity

Hor et al. connect Bil-dependent particle production to reduced phage infectivity.
DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.017
An expanded arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages

Millman et al. published the discovery cohort that DefenseFinder maps to its Bil article-registry row.
DOI:10.1101/2022.05.11.491447
An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages

The bioRxiv version of Millman et al. is the DOI cited in DefenseFinder's Bil article-registry row.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
Bil | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages

The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named Bil system to the Millman et al. antiphage-system discovery preprint.

Bil loci impair bacteriophage infectivity

Conservative system-level sketch linking possession of a Bil ubiquitin-like conjugation locus to central-tail-fibre obstruction and impaired phage infectivity without asserting the exact DefenseFinder profile or rule set for Bil.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures Bil as a named phage-defense system whose ubiquitin-like protein is covalently attached to the phage central tail fibre while leaving the exact Bil component composition, target-phage breadth, receptor-recognition consequences, and DefenseFinder model profiles unresolved.

Edge evidence

Bil locus contributes to Bil ubiquitin-like conjugation RO:0002326
Bil loci encode a bacterial antiphage system based on ubiquitin-like conjugation, and DefenseFinder links Bil to an antiphage-system discovery preprint.
- DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 Bil antiphage defence system Hor et al. identify Bil as a ubiquitin-like conjugation antiphage defense system.
- DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.017 An expanded arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages Millman et al. published the discovery cohort that DefenseFinder maps to its Bil article-registry row.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md Bil | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named Bil system to the Millman et al. antiphage-system discovery preprint.
Bil ubiquitin-like conjugation contributes to central tail fibre obstruction RO:0002326
The Bil system can obstruct the phage central tail fibre by covalently attaching a ubiquitin-like protein.
- DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 phage central tail fibre is obstructed by the covalently attached ubiquitin-like protein Hor et al. show that the Bil system obstructs the phage central tail fibre with a covalently attached ubiquitin-like protein.
central tail fibre obstruction contributes to impaired phage infectivity RO:0002326
Central-tail-fibre obstruction by the Bil system impairs phage-particle infectivity.
- DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 phage central tail fibre is obstructed by the covalently attached ubiquitin-like protein Hor et al. show that the Bil system obstructs the phage central tail fibre with a covalently attached ubiquitin-like protein.
- DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 These phages show severely impaired infectivity Hor et al. connect Bil-dependent particle production to reduced phage infectivity.
impaired phage infectivity confers Bil system METPO:2007700
Bil-mediated impairment of phage infectivity realizes the Bil system trait.
- DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 These phages show severely impaired infectivity Hor et al. connect Bil-dependent particle production to reduced phage infectivity.
Bil system is a phage defense system rdfs:subClassOf
Bil system possession is a phage-defense-system trait.
- DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 Bil antiphage defence system Hor et al. identify Bil as a ubiquitin-like conjugation antiphage defense system.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md Bil | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named Bil system to the Millman et al. antiphage-system discovery preprint.

Provenance

Identifier source: TraitMech local identifier
Definition source: DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5

Parent traits (1)

phage defense system traitmech:000209

Synonyms (2)

Bil EXACT_SYNONYM · https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
Bil antiphage defence system EXACT_SYNONYM · DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (1)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Resolve Bil HMM profiles and rule rows before minting component-specific Bil mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN bil-defensefinder-profile-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-24

Attached to causal_graphs#bil_locus_impairs_phage_assembly

Hor et al. support Bil as a bacterial ubiquitin-like conjugation antiphage system that modifies the phage central tail fibre, and the pinned DefenseFinder article registry maps Bil to the Millman et al. discovery preprint. The same pinned HMM inventory and rules table do not include exact Bil rows, so the exact DefenseFinder profile set, component rule, and model coverage remain unresolved.

Evidence

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
Bil | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages

Curation history

2026-09-25T03:02:00Z · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex
Minted Bil system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under phage defense system after an ignored-and-hidden duplicate review found no exact live TraitMech, METPO, history, or prior proposal record; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v246.
2026-09-25T03:03:00Z · REVIEW_DEFENSEFINDER_PROFILE_GAP · codex
Reviewed the DefenseFinder Bil article-registry row at commit afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268 and left narrower Bil HMM/profile semantics unresolved because the pinned HMM inventory and rules table have no exact Bil rows.