Diversity and distribution of nuclease bacteriocins in bacterial genomes revealed using Hidden Markov Models.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria exploit an arsenal of antimicrobial peptides and proteins to compete with each other. Three main competition systems have been described: type six secretion systems (T6SS); contact dependent inhibition (CDI); and bacteriocins. Unlike T6SS and CDI systems, bacteriocins do not require contact between bacteria but are diffusible toxins released into the environment. Identified almost a century ago, our understanding of bacteriocin distribution and prevalence in bacterial populations remains poor. In the case of protein bacteriocins, this is because of high levels of sequence diversity and difficulties in distinguishing their killing domains from those of other competition systems. Here, we develop a robust bioinformatics pipeline exploiting Hidden Markov Models for the identification

SUBMITTER: Sharp C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5536347 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature