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Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Systems: Evolution and Revolutions.

  • Fraikin N Cellular and Molecular Microbiology (CM2), Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Gosselies, Belgium.
  • Goormaghtigh F Research Area Infection Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Van Melderen L Cellular and Molecular Microbiology (CM2), Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Gosselies, Belgium lvmelder@ulb.ac.be.
  • 2020-01-15
Published in:
  • Journal of bacteriology. - 2020
persistence
proteolysis
stress responses
toxin-antitoxin
transcriptional regulation
Antitoxins
Bacterial Toxins
Biological Evolution
Genetic Association Studies
Genome, Bacterial
Phenotype
Toxin-Antitoxin Systems
English Type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are small genetic elements composed of a toxic protein and its cognate antitoxin protein, the latter counteracting the toxicity of the former. While TA systems were initially discovered on plasmids, functioning as addiction modules through a phenomenon called postsegregational killing, they were later shown to be massively present in bacterial chromosomes, often in association with mobile genetic elements. Extensive research has been conducted in recent decades to better understand the physiological roles of these chromosomally encoded modules and to characterize the conditions leading to their activation. The diversity of their proposed roles, ranging from genomic stabilization and abortive phage infection to stress modulation and antibiotic persistence, in conjunction with the poor understanding of TA system regulation, resulted in the generation of simplistic models, often refuted by contradictory results. This review provides an epistemological and critical retrospective on TA modules and highlights fundamental questions concerning their roles and regulations that still remain unanswered.
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  • English
Open access status
hybrid
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/98603
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