Abstract
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are important genetic modules composed by two elements: a toxin, that is always a protein, and an antitoxin, that can be a RNA or a protein and neutralizes the toxic effect of toxin. These systems are widespread in bacteria and archaea, found on plasmids and chromosomes. According to the nature of the antitoxin and its mode of interaction with the toxin, TA systems are grouped into five types. In general, the antitoxin is less stable than the toxin and is rapidly degraded in special conditions, leaving the toxin free to act on its cellular targets. TA modules are important in several events in cell physiology such as plasmid maintenance, formation of persister cells, stress resistance, protection from bacteriophages and regulation of biofilm formation, acting on crucial cellular processes including translation, replication, cytoskeleton formation and membrane integrity. TA systems components have proven to be very useful in biotechnology, being used to enhance cloning selection and protein expression in living bacterial cells. Furthermore, they are also considered as promising targets for the development of antibacterial drugs and can be used in gene therapy. Here, we reported current aspects and the application of TA modules in biotechnology research. Key words: Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, toxin, antitoxin, post-segregational killing (PSK).
Highlights
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) loci encode two-component systems that consist of a toxin and an antitoxin that neutralizes its effect (Yamaguchi et al, 2011)
TA systems have been initially discovered on plasmids as mechanism of plasmid maintenance by death of bacterial daughter cells which did not receive a copy of the plasmid during the cell division (Jaffe et al, 1985; Gerdes et al, 1986)
Type II TA systems appears as good candidate, allowing several modes to perform the activation of TA module (Unterholzner et al, 2013): 1) Disruption of TA complexes; 2) prevention of complex formation; 3) activation of cellular proteases; 4) inhibition of TA transcription; 5) overexpression of the TA system and subsequent removal of the activating drug; 6) induction of plasmid loss
Summary
Luiz Carlos Bertucci Barbosa1*, Alex Sânder Rodrigues Cangussu, Saulo Santesso Garrido and Reinaldo Marchetto. Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are important genetic modules composed by two elements: a toxin, that is always a protein, and an antitoxin, that can be a RNA or a protein and neutralizes the toxic effect of toxin These systems are widespread in bacteria and archaea, found on plasmids and chromosomes. TA systems components have proven to be very useful in biotechnology, being used to enhance cloning selection and protein expression in living bacterial cells. They are considered as promising targets for the development of antibacterial drugs and can be used in gene therapy.
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