Toxin-antitoxin systems on the large defense plasmid pSYSA of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic elements, which are encoded by plasmid as well as chromosomal loci and mediate plasmid and genomic island maintenance through post-segregational killing mechanisms. TA systems exist in surprisingly high numbers in all prokaryotes, but cyanobacterial TA systems have been only very poorly experimentally characterized so far. Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes that perform oxygenic photosynthesis. As such, cyanobacteria are of high ecological importance and are considered promising for the production of biofuels. Here, we present the molecular characterization of the sll7003/ssl7004 TA system encoded on plasmid pSYSA of the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 as involving a Mg(2+)-dependent RNA endonuclease activity targeting

SUBMITTER: Kopfmann S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3591647 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature