Translation-inhibiting antibiotics can antagonize phage infectivity by blocking deployment of anti-CRISPR counter-defenses

University of Exeter authors show, using Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 and phage DMS3vir, that antibiotics targeting protein translation raise CRISPR-Cas immunity against phages carrying anti-CRISPR (acr) genes by interfering with production of the phage's counter-defense proteins. Such phages amplify on CRISPR-Cas bacteria without antibiotics but not with them, which also protects the bacteria from lysis (PNAS, 2023).