Phages gain the upper hand in the metabolic arms race for NAD()

Bacteria often defend against phage infection by deploying NADase effectors to degrade cellular NAD(+), thereby halting both bacterial growth and phage replication. In a recent article in Nature, Osterman et al.(1) identify phage-encoded counterdefense pathways that reconstitute NAD(+) during infection, enabling phages to combat multiple unrelated antiphage systems.