TraitMech

TraitMech › GENOMICS

SNIPE system

traitmech:000414 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A phage defense system in which an organism possesses a SNIPE anti-bacteriophage system that localizes to the bacterial membrane, exploits the spatial organization of phage genome injection, and directly cleaves incoming phage DNA to block siphovirus infection.

Trait evidence (5)

  • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1
    Here, we characterize SNIPE, an anti-bacteriophage defence system that constitutively localizes to the bacterial cell membrane in Escherichia coli

    Saxton et al. define SNIPE as an anti-bacteriophage defence system and localize it to the bacterial cell membrane in Escherichia coli.

  • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1
    Using radiolabelled phage DNA and time-lapse microscopy to track phage genomes, we demonstrate that SNIPE directly cleaves phage DNA during genome injection.

    Saxton et al. show that SNIPE directly cleaves phage DNA while the phage genome is being injected.

  • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1
    SNIPE also defends against diverse siphoviruses

    Saxton et al. support SNIPE defence against diverse siphoviruses.

  • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1
    Our findings establish SNIPE as a widespread bacterial defence system that exploits the spatial organization of phage genome injection to specifically target viral DNA

    Saxton et al. frame SNIPE as a widespread defence system that exploits phage genome-injection geometry to target viral DNA.

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
    | SNIPE | 10\.1038/s41586-026-10207-1 | A membrane-bound nuclease directly cleaves phage DNA during genome injection |

    The pinned DefenseFinder article registry maps the named SNIPE system to the Saxton et al. phage-genome-injection cleavage paper. The pinned HMM inventory and rules table do not list SNIPE, so this row is name-to-paper evidence rather than model-component evidence.

SNIPE cleaves phage DNA during genome injection

Conservative system-level sketch linking a SNIPE locus to direct phage DNA cleavage during genome injection, inhibition of siphovirus infection, and SNIPE system possession.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures SNIPE at membrane-localized phage-genome-injection targeting level without asserting the exact direct viral sensor, the full host or phage range, or any DefenseFinder HMM-to-component mapping.

SNIPE cleaves phage DNA during genome injection Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for SNIPE system.

Edge evidence

  • SNIPE locus enables SNIPE direct phage DNA cleavage RO:0002327

    A SNIPE locus enables direct cleavage of phage DNA during genome injection.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1 Using radiolabelled phage DNA and time-lapse microscopy to track phage genomes, we demonstrate that SNIPE directly cleaves phage DNA during genome injection. Saxton et al. directly connect SNIPE to phage DNA cleavage during genome injection.
  • SNIPE direct phage DNA cleavage mitigates phage genome injection METPO:2007407

    SNIPE targets viral DNA during the genome-injection stage of phage infection.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1 Our findings establish SNIPE as a widespread bacterial defence system that exploits the spatial organization of phage genome injection to specifically target viral DNA Saxton et al. frame SNIPE cleavage as exploitation of the spatial organization of phage genome injection.
  • SNIPE direct phage DNA cleavage mitigates siphovirus infection METPO:2007407

    By targeting injected viral DNA, SNIPE restricts siphovirus infection.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1 SNIPE also defends against diverse siphoviruses Saxton et al. support SNIPE-mediated defence against diverse siphoviruses.
  • SNIPE direct phage DNA cleavage confers SNIPE system METPO:2007700

    Direct cleavage of injected phage DNA realizes the SNIPE system trait.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1 Using radiolabelled phage DNA and time-lapse microscopy to track phage genomes, we demonstrate that SNIPE directly cleaves phage DNA during genome injection. Saxton et al. show the SNIPE phage-defense output as direct phage DNA cleavage during genome injection.
  • SNIPE system is a phage defense system rdfs:subClassOf

    SNIPE system possession is a phage-defense-system trait.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (1)

  • SNIPE EXACT_SYNONYM · DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10207-1

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 SNIPE host breadth, sensitive-phage breadth, direct tape-measure interaction specificity, and DefenseFinder HMM/rules coverage before minting narrower SNIPE mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN snipe-defensefinder-model-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-27

Attached to causal_graphs#snipe_cleaves_injected_phage_dna

Saxton et al. support SNIPE as a membrane-localized anti-bacteriophage system that directly cleaves phage DNA during genome injection, while the pinned DefenseFinder article registry names a SNIPE system. The pinned DefenseFinder HMM inventory and rules table have no SNIPE rows, and the evidence does not yet resolve full host breadth, full target-phage breadth, direct tape-measure protein specificity, or profile-to-activity modeling.

Evidence

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Minted SNIPE 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; kept the graph at membrane-localized phage-genome-injection cleavage level because the pinned DefenseFinder article row is not backed by pinned HMM or rules rows; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v291.

  2. · REVIEW_CANONICAL_EXAMPLE_EVIDENCE_GAP · codex

    Reviewed SNIPE system during canonical-example issue 444 enforcement and left canonical_examples empty because the sources support E. coli expression and phage-challenge assays plus a DefenseFinder article-registry system name, but not a direct native microbial isolate exemplar with experimentally verified SNIPE activity. No paid research was used.