Prof. Anat Herskovits

Anat Herskovits is investigating host-pathogen and pathogen-phage interactions. She uses the intracellular bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes to explore how temperate phages that stably inhabit the genome affect bacterial virulence, and how they are adapted to the mammalian environment. Further she explores the interactions between cohabiting phage elements, and how polylysogeny is maintained. While most bacterial pathogens, and bacteria in general, are lysogens, namely carry DNA of infective and cryptic phage elements in their genome, their impact on the behavior of bacterial pathogens during mammalian infection is not well understood. Anat investigates these  questions, focusing on bacteria-phage cooperative behaviors that support virulenc

Relevant publications:

Rabinovich L., Sigal N., Borovok I., Nir-Paz R., and Herskovits A.A.* Prophage Excision Activates Listeria Competence Genes that Promote Phagosomal Escape and Virulence. Cell, 2012, August; 150(4):792-802
Feiner R., Argov T., Rabinovich L., Sigal N., Borovok I., and Herskovits A.A.* A new perspective on lysogeny: prophages as active regulatory switches of bacteria. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2015, Oct;13(10):641-50.
Argov T, Azulay G, Pasechnek A, Stadnyuk O, Ran-Sapir S, Borovok I, Sigal N, Herskovits A.A.* Temperate bacteriophages as regulators of host behavior. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 2017, Aug; 38:81-87. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.05.002
Argov T, Sapir SR, Pasechnek A, Azulay G, Stadnyuk O, Rabinovich L, Sigal N, Borovok I, Herskovits A.A.* Coordination of cohabiting phage elements supports bacteria phage cooperation. Nature Communications, 2019 Nov 21;10(1):5288. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13296-x
Pasechnek A, Rabinovich L, Stadnyuk O, Azulay G, Mioduser J, Argov T, Borovok I, Sigal N, Herskovits A.A.* Active lysogeny in Listeria monocytogenes is a bacteria-phage adaptive response in the mammalian cells. Cell Reports, 2020 Jul 28;32(4):107956. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107956.
A dual function phage regulator controls the response of cohabiting phage elements via regulation of the SOS response. Azulay G., Pasechnek A., Stadnyuk O., Ran Sapir S., Fleisacher A.M., Borovok I., Sigal N. and Herskovits A.A.* Cell Reports, 2022, In press