Prokaryotic Toxin-Antitoxins

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Kenn Gerdes

   Pages 1-8

3. Type I Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: hok/sok and fst

   • Keith Weaver

   Pages 9-26

4. Novel Type I Toxin-Antitoxins Loci

   • Elizabeth Fozo

   Pages 27-43

5. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The ccdAB and parDE Families

   • Marie Deghorain, Nathalie Goeders, Thomas Jové, Laurence Van Melderen

   Pages 45-67

6. Type II Toxin-Antitoxins Loci: The relBE Family

   • Kenn Gerdes

   Pages 69-92

7. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The Unusual mqsRA Locus

   • Niilo Kaldalu, Villu Kasari, Gemma Atkinson, Tanel Tenson

   Pages 93-105

8. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The mazEF Family

   • Yoshihiro Yamaguchi, Masayori Inouye

   Pages 107-136

9. Type II Toxin-Antitoxins: Structural and Functional Aspects of Type II Loci in Mycobacteria

   • Vickery L. Arcus, Gregory M. Cook

   Pages 137-156

10. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The phd/doc Family

    • Abel Garcia-Pino, Yann Sterckx, Roy D. Magnuson, Remy Loris

    Pages 157-176

11. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The fic Family

    • Arnaud Goepfert, Alexander Harms, Tilman Schirmer, Christoph Dehio

    Pages 177-187

12. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci, hipBA and Persisters

    • Kim Lewis, Sonja Hansen

    Pages 189-203

13. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The Epsilon/zeta Family

    • Hannes Mutschler, Anton Meinhart

    Pages 205-223

14. Archaeal Type II Toxin-Antitoxins

    • Shiraz A. Shah, Roger A. Garrett

    Pages 225-238

15. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: Phylogeny

    • Hong-Yu Ou, Yiqing Wei, Dexi Bi

    Pages 239-247

16. Type III Toxin-Antitoxin Loci

    • Tim R. Blower, Francesca L. Short, George P. C. Salmond

    Pages 249-265

17. Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci Encoded by Plasmids

    • Elizabeth Diago-Navarro, Ana M. Hernández-Arriaga, Ramón Díaz-Orejas

    Pages 267-294

18. Toxin-Antitoxin Loci in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

    • Ambre Sala, Patricia Bordes, Gwennaele Fichant, Pierre Genevaux

    Pages 295-314

19. Toxin-Antitoxin Loci in Streptococcus pneumoniae

    • Wai Ting Chan, Inma Moreno-Córdoba, Chew Chieng Yeo, Manuel Espinosa

    Pages 315-339

20. Biotechnological and Medical Exploitations of Toxin-Antitoxin Genes and Their Components

    • Guillermo de la Cueva-Méndez, Belén Pimentel

    Pages 341-360

Prokaryotic Toxins – Antitoxins gives the first overview of an exciting and rapidly expanding research field. Toxin – antitoxin (TA) genes were discovered on plasmids 30 years ago. Since then it has become evident that TA genes are highly abundant in bacterial and archaeal chromosomes. TA genes code for an antitoxin that combine with and neutralize a cognate toxin. When activated, the toxins inhibit protein synthesis and cell growth and thereby induce dormancy and multidrug tolerance (persistence). Remarkably, in some species, the TA gene families have undergone dramatic expansions. For example, the highly persistent major human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis has »100 TA loci. The large expansion of TA genes by some organisms is a biological mystery. However, recent observations indicate that TA genes contribute cumulatively to the persistence of bacteria. This medically important phenomenon may thus for the first time become experimentally tractable at the molecular level.

• RNA degradation
• bacteria
• messenger RNA
• pathogens
• persistence
• virulence
• Apoptosis

• Inst. for Cell and Molecular Bioscience, Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

  Kenn Gerdes

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