The DarTG toxin-antitoxin system provides phage defence by ADP-ribosylating viral DNA.

ABSTRACT: Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are broadly distributed, yet poorly conserved, genetic elements whose biological functions are unclear and controversial. Some TA systems may provide bacteria with immunity to infection by their ubiquitous viral predators, bacteriophages. To identify such TA systems, we searched bioinformatically for those frequently encoded near known phage defence genes in bacterial genomes. This search identified homologues of DarTG, a recently discovered family of TA systems whose biological functions and natural activating conditions were unclear. Representatives from two different subfamilies, DarTG1 and DarTG2, strongly protected E. coli MG1655 against different phages. We demonstrate that for each system, infection with either RB69 or T5 phage, respectively, triggers re

SUBMITTER: LeRoux M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9250638 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature