Pseudomonas aeruginosa defends against phages through type IV pilus glycosylation

Since phages present a major challenge to survival in most environments, bacteria express a battery of anti-phage defences including CRISPR–Cas, restriction-modification and abortive infection systems1–4. Such strategies are effective, but the phage genome—which encodes potentially inhibitory gene products—is still allowed to enter the cell. The safest way to preclude phage infection is to block initial phage adsorption to the cell. Here, we …