Diverse yeast antiviral systems prevent lethal pathogenesis caused by the L-A mycovirus.

Recent studies show that antiviral systems are remarkably conserved from bacteria to mammals, demonstrating that unique insights into these systems can be gained by studying microbial organisms. Unlike in bacteria, however, where phage infection can be lethal, no cytotoxic viral consequence is known in the budding yeast even though it is chronically infected with a double-stranded RNA mycovirus called L-A. This remains the case despite the previous identification of conserved antiviral systems that limit L-A replication.