Toxins, Targets, and Triggers: An Overview of Toxin-Antitoxin Biology
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Date
2018-06-07
Publication Type
Review Article
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no
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Abstract
Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules are abundant genetic elements that encode a toxin protein capable of inhibiting cell growth and an antitoxin that counteracts the toxin. The majority of toxins are enzymes that interfere with translation or DNA replication, but a wide variety of molecular activities and cellular targets have been described. Antitoxins are proteins or RNAs that often control their cognate toxins through direct interactions and, in conjunction with other signaling elements, through transcriptional and translational regulation of TA module expression. Three major biological functions of TA modules have been discovered, post-segregational killing (“plasmid addiction”), abortive infection (bacteriophage immunity through altruistic suicide), and persister formation (antibiotic tolerance through dormancy). In this review, we summarize the current state of the field and highlight how multiple levels of regulation shape the conditions of toxin activation to achieve the different biological functions of TA modules.
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published
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Journal / series
Volume
70 (5)
Pages / Article No.
768 - 784
Publisher
Cell Press
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Software
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Subject
Toxin-antitoxin modules; Post-segregational killing; Plasmid addiction; Abortive infection; Bacterial persistence; Antibiotic tolerance; RNA biology; Conditional cooperativity
Organisational unit
09807 - Harms, Alexander / Harms, Alexande