Toxin-Antitoxin Systems in Estuarine Synechococcus Strain CB0101 and Their Transcriptomic Responses to Environmental Stressors.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic elements composed of a toxin gene and its cognate antitoxin, with the ability to regulate growth. TA systems have not previously been reported in marine Synechococcus or Prochlorococcus. Here we report the finding of seven TA system pairs (Type II) in the estuarine Synechococcus CB0101, and their responses of these TA genes to under different stress conditions, which include; nitrogen and phosphate starvation, phage infection, zinc toxicity, and photo-oxidation. Database searches discovered that eight other marine Synechococcus strains also contain at least one TA pair but none were found in Prochlorococcus. We demonstrate that the relB/relE TA pair was active and resulted in RNA degradation when C

SUBMITTER: Marsan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5498466 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature