Upon phage infection, the bacterial immune system senses a specific phage component or modification that the phage exerts on the cell to elicit the bacterial immune response. Understanding how bacteria sense phage infection is a fundamental question, which remains unanswered for the majority of recently discovered immune systems. There are dozens of cases in which the mechanism of immunity has been elucidated, but the phage trigger remains elusive. Understanding how antiphage systems are activated is key for a full understanding of bacterial immunity and for repurposing them as molecular tools as has been done for restriction enzymes and CRISPR-Cas.
