Erebus system

traitmech:000308 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A phage defense system in which an organism possesses an Erebus locus that can protect bacteria from bacteriophage infection.

Trait evidence (4)

DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2024.07.007
We validated six of these phage defense systems, including factors preventing viral attachment, R-loop-acting enzymes, the inflammasome, ubiquitin pathway, and pathogen recognition signaling.

van den Berg et al. validated six phage defense systems related to eukaryotic innate antiviral responses.
DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2024.07.007
Searching for phage defense systems related to innate antiviral genes from vertebrates and plants, we uncovered over 450 candidates.

van den Berg et al. motivate a conservative system-level record that does not assert a resolved Erebus trigger, effector output, or universal pathway.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
Erebus | 10\.1016/j\.chom\.2024\.07\.007 | Bacterial homologs of innate eukaryotic antiviral defenses with anti-phage activity highlight shared evolutionary roots of viral defenses

The DefenseFinder model registry maps the named Erebus system to the van den Berg et al. antiphage-system discovery paper.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md
Erebus__EruA | | Erebus

The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records Erebus__EruA in the Erebus model namespace.

Erebus loci confer bacterial phage defense

Conservative system-level sketch linking possession of an Erebus locus to restricted bacteriophage propagation without asserting the unresolved phage trigger or molecular output.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures Erebus as a named anti-phage system with an Erebus__EruA DefenseFinder HMM profile entry while leaving its phage trigger, molecular substrate, antiviral effector output, and subtype breadth unresolved.

Edge evidence

Erebus locus contributes to restricted phage propagation RO:0002326
DefenseFinder maps Erebus to a eukaryotic-antiviral-homolog antiphage-system discovery paper and catalogs an Erebus__EruA HMM profile entry in the Erebus model namespace.
- DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2024.07.007 We validated six of these phage defense systems, including factors preventing viral attachment, R-loop-acting enzymes, the inflammasome, ubiquitin pathway, and pathogen recognition signaling. van den Berg et al. validated six phage defense systems related to eukaryotic innate antiviral responses.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md Erebus | 10\.1016/j\.chom\.2024\.07\.007 | Bacterial homologs of innate eukaryotic antiviral defenses with anti-phage activity highlight shared evolutionary roots of viral defenses The DefenseFinder model registry maps the named Erebus system to the van den Berg et al. antiphage-system discovery paper.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md Erebus__EruA | | Erebus The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records Erebus__EruA in the Erebus model namespace.
restricted phage propagation confers Erebus system METPO:2007700
Erebus-mediated phage restriction realizes the Erebus system trait.
- DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2024.07.007 We validated six of these phage defense systems, including factors preventing viral attachment, R-loop-acting enzymes, the inflammasome, ubiquitin pathway, and pathogen recognition signaling. van den Berg et al. validated six phage defense systems related to eukaryotic antiviral responses.
Erebus system is a phage defense system rdfs:subClassOf
Erebus system possession is a phage-defense-system trait.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md Erebus | 10\.1016/j\.chom\.2024\.07\.007 | Bacterial homologs of innate eukaryotic antiviral defenses with anti-phage activity highlight shared evolutionary roots of viral defenses The DefenseFinder model registry maps the named Erebus system to the van den Berg et al. antiphage-system discovery paper.

Provenance

Identifier source: TraitMech local identifier
Definition source: DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2024.07.007

Parent traits (1)

phage defense system traitmech:000209

Synonyms (2)

Erebus EXACT_SYNONYM · https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
EruA RELATED_SYNONYM · https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md

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 Erebus phage triggers and effector outputs before minting narrower Erebus mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN erebus-mechanism-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-20

Attached to causal_graphs#erebus_locus_restricts_phage

van den Berg et al. and DefenseFinder support Erebus as a named anti-phage system with an Erebus__EruA HMM profile entry, but the trigger, molecular substrate, antiviral effector output, and subtype-specific mechanism are not resolved enough here to assert a narrower mechanistic child trait.

Curation history

2026-09-20T11:49:00Z · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex
Minted Erebus system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under phage defense system after an ignored-and-hidden duplicate review found no exact live TraitMech, METPO, or prior proposal record; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v185.
2026-09-20T12:25:08Z · CURATION_REVIEW_REVISION · codex
Resolved PR 1136 review issue 1137 by mirroring the proposal-only EruA label as a RELATED_SYNONYM sourced to the pinned DefenseFinder HMM inventory.