Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Systems: Evolution and Revolutions

Identification and characterization of type II toxin-antitoxin systems

Endoribonuclease type II toxin-antitoxin systems: functional or selfish?

Most bacterial genomes have multiple type II toxin-antitoxin systems (TAs) that encode two proteins which are referred to as a toxin and an antitoxin. Toxins inhibit a cellular process, while the interaction of the antitoxin with the toxin attenuates the toxin's activity. Endoribonuclease-encoding TAs cleave RNA in a sequence-dependent fashion, resulting in translational inhibition. To account ...

Type II toxin/antitoxin MqsR/MqsA controls type V toxin/antitoxin GhoT/GhoS.

Toxin endoribonucleases of toxin/antitoxin (TA) systems regulate protein production by selectively degrading mRNAs but have never been shown to control other TA systems. Here we demonstrate that toxin MqsR of the MqsR/MqsA system enriches toxin ghoT mRNA in vivo and in vitro, since this transcript lacks the primary MqsR cleavage site 5'-GCU. GhoT is a membrane toxin that causes the ghost cell p...

Toxin–antitoxin systems

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are small genetic elements composed of a toxin gene and its cognate antitoxin. The toxins of all known TA systems are proteins while the antitoxins are either proteins or non-coding RNAs. Based on the molecular nature of the antitoxin and its mode of interaction with the toxin the TA modules are currently grouped into five classes. In general, the toxin is more stab...

Bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are composed of two elements: a toxic protein and an antitoxin which is either an RNA (type I and III) or a protein (type II). Type II systems are abundant in bacterial genomes in which they move via horizontal gene transfer. They are generally composed of two genes organized in an operon, encoding a toxin and a labile antitoxin. When carried by mobile genetic eleme...