Identity
The canonical name is SNIPE defense system, with the alias SNIPE. 1 SNIPE is a phage-defense system associated with the PF13250/DUF4041 domain and the PF13455 (Mug113) nuclease domain. 2 The stable identifier reported for its nuclease domain is Pfam PF13455 (Mug113). 1 The nuclease domain is PF13455 (Mug113), not PF01541, although both domains belong to the GIY-YIG clan. 1 The new analysis refines this assignment: PF13455 belongs to the GIY-YIG clan but is distinct from canonical GIY-YIG PF01541, and no surveyed gene cluster contained both PF13250 and PF01541. 2
Key facts
SNIPE occurred in 4,572 gene clusters across 1,696 species and 33 phyla. 1 Of these gene clusters, 86.7% were accessory or singleton. 1 This accessory-plus-singleton distribution supports the interpretation that SNIPE is predominantly mobile and commonly gained or lost rather than stably core-inherited. 2
A full two-domain SNIPE protein with 129 experiments was identified in Methanococcus maripaludis JJ. 1 In the new analysis, its PF13250-plus-PF13455 architecture was the only complete two-domain SNIPE architecture found among Fitness Browser examples; it was dispensable under most tested conditions. 2
The document reports SNIPE alongside phage-infection data from phagefoundry, whose strain-modelling database contained 17,672 binary infection outcomes from 188 Escherichia coli strains and 96 phages. 1 The associated machine-learning model achieved an AUC of 0.883. 1 Lambda infected 1/188 strains (0.5%), whereas Myoviridae infected 43.4% of strains. 1 These results are consistent with SNIPE acting at a phage adsorption/injection interface, but do not establish that mechanism across the surveyed strains. 2
Klebsiella had 1 DUF4041 annotation across 3 proteins and 4,619 PTS_EIIC annotations, making it the only PhageFoundry species with both SNIPE and the ManX-family PTS domain. 1 The new analysis supports, but does not directly demonstrate, a SNIPE–ManYZ transporter connection: SNIPE is proposed to cleave phage DNA entering through ManYZ while preserving mannose transport, whereas manY/manZ loss carries transporter costs. 2
Related research
The SNIPE findings contribute to environmental-resistome by documenting the distribution and accessory status of a defense-system gene family. 1 They also connect defense-system analysis with phagefoundry and with the broader gene-content synthesis in pangenome-integration. 1 The source document is summarized at discoveries and SNIPE Defense System in the KBase Data Lakehouse Pangenome. 2