Genome Mining Shows Ubiquitous Presence and Extensive Diversity of Toxin-Antitoxin Systems in Pseudomonas syringae.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems consist of two or more adjacent genes, encoding a toxin and an antitoxin. TA systems are implicated in evolutionary and physiological functions including genome maintenance, antibiotics persistence, phage defense, and virulence. Eight classes of TA systems have been described, based on the mechanism of toxin neutralization by the antitoxin. Although studied well in model species of clinical significance, little is known about the TA system abundance and diversity, and their potential roles in stress tolerance and virulence of plant pathogens. In this study, we screened the genomes of 339 strains representing the genetic and lifestyle diversity of the Pseudomonas syringae species complex for TA systems. Using bioinformatic search and prediction

SUBMITTER: Kandel PP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8790059 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature