{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,19]],"date-time":"2026-10-19T16:48:20Z","timestamp":1792428500594,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788307200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":9,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Technological Innovation Plan in Hubei Province","award":["2024BCA001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024BCA001"]}]},{"name":"Natural Science Foundation of Wuhan City","award":["2024040701010046"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024040701010046"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Prokaryotic Argonautes (pAgos) are widely distributed and provide immunity against invading DNA. Based on their domain architecture, pAgos are classified into three major groups: long-A, long-B, and short pAgos. Among them, long-B pAgos remain the least understood subgroup. Here, we show that a long-B pAgo-nuclease system (EcBPAN) from Escherichia coli (E. coli) provides the first clear evidence of anti-phage activity among long-B pAgo systems. By combining structural determination, biochemical analyses, and in vivo phage-resistance assays, we elucidated the activation mechanism of EcBPAN. We found that RNA-guided EcAgo recognizes target DNA and subsequently recruits the autoinhibited EcbAgaN (long-B pAgo-associated nuclease from E. coli) dimer to form an unprecedented 8:8 pAgo-nuclease complex with robust nonspecific DNase activity. The cryo-EM structure of the activated complex revealed a distinctive bowl-shaped architecture, in which the C-terminal nuclease domains of EcbAgaN form an active octamer, while the N-terminal domains engage four EcAgo-guide RNA-target DNA ternary dimers in an interleaved manner, thereby relieving autoinhibition. Together, these findings provide mechanistic insights into the long-B pAgo defense system and reveal a mode of immune activation that is distinct from those of long-A and short pAgo systems, its supramolecular assembly and regulatory mechanism.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/gkag865","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,25]],"date-time":"2026-08-25T11:40:32Z","timestamp":1787658032000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Mechanism of the long-B prokaryotic Argonaute-mediated nuclease activation in bacterial immunity"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"54","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-1267-6779","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Min","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qin","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoruo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dujuan","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiong","family":"Xing","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3951-6691","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wenqiang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9543-2994","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fengtao","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4938-4741","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lixin","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University , Wuhan, Hubei 430062 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026090204363053200_B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"743","DOI":"10.1038\/nsmb.2879","article-title":"The evolutionary journey of Argonaute proteins","volume":"21","author":"Swarts","year":"2014","journal-title":"Nat Struct Mol 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