Toxin-antitoxin system

Stabilization and fitness of mobile DNA As stated above, toxin-antitoxin systems are well characterized as plasmid addiction modules. It was also proposed that toxin-antitoxin systems have evolved as plasmid exclusion modules. A cell that carries two plasmids from the same incompatibility group will eventually generate two daughter cells carrying either plasmid. Should one of these plasmids encode for a TA system, its "displacement" by another TA-free plasmid system will prevent its inheritance and thus induce post-segregational killing. This theory was corroborated through computer modelling. Toxin-antitoxin systems can also be found on other mobile genetic elements such as conjugative transposons and temperate bacteriophages and could be implicated in the maintenance and competition of these elements. Genome stabilization of Sinorhizobium meliloti, with its 25 chromosomal toxin-antitoxin systems. Orange-labelled loci are confirmed TA systems and green labels show putative systems. Altruistic cell death mazEF, a toxin-antitoxin locus found in E. coli and other bacteria, was proposed to induce programmed cell death in response to starvation, specifically a lack of amino acids. This would release the cell's contents for absorption by neighbouring cells, potentially preventing the death of close relatives, and thereby increasing the inclusive fitness of the cell that perished. This would be an example of altruism and how bacterial colonies could resemble multicellular organisms. Stress tolerance Another theory states that chromosomal toxin-antitoxin systems are designed to be bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal. However, it was shown that several toxin-antitoxin systems, including relBE, do not give any competitive advantage under any stress condition. Similarly, the ataR antitoxin encoded on the chromosome of E. coli O157:H7 is able to neutralize the ataTP toxin encoded on plasmids found in other enterohemorragic E. coli. Phage protection Type III toxin-antitoxin (AbiQ) systems have been shown to protect bacteria from bacteriophages altruistically. During an infection, bacteriophages hijack transcription and translation, which could prevent antitoxin replenishment and release toxin, triggering what is called an "abortive infection". type II, and type IV (AbiE) toxin-antitoxin systems. Abortive initiation (Abi) can also happen without toxin-antitoxin systems, and many Abi proteins of other types exist. This mechanism serves to halt the replication of phages, protecting the overall population from harm. Antimicrobial persistence When bacteria are challenged with antibiotics, a small and distinct subpopulation of cells is able to withstand the treatment by a phenomenon dubbed as "persistence" (not to be confused with resistance). Due to their bacteriostatic properties, type II toxin-antitoxin systems have previously been thought to be responsible for persistence, by switching a fraction of the bacterial population to a dormant state. However, this hypothesis has been widely invalidated. Selfish DNA Toxin-antitoxin systems have been used as examples of selfish DNA as part of the gene centered view of evolution. It has been theorised that toxin-antitoxin loci serve only to maintain their own DNA, at the expense of the host organism. Thus, chromosomal toxin-antitoxin systems would serve no purpose and could be treated as "junk DNA". For example, the ccdAB system encoded in the chromosome of E. coli O157:H7 has been shown to be under negative selection, albeit at a slow rate due to its addictive properties. ==System types==

Type I '' type I toxin-antitoxin system Type I toxin-antitoxin systems rely on the base-pairing of complementary antitoxin RNA with the toxin mRNA. Translation of the mRNA is then inhibited either by degradation via RNase III or by occluding the Shine-Dalgarno sequence or ribosome binding site of the toxin mRNA. Often the toxin and antitoxin are encoded on opposite strands of DNA. The 5' or 3' overlapping region between the two genes is the area involved in complementary base-pairing, usually with between 19–23 contiguous base pairs. Toxins of type I systems are small, hydrophobic proteins that confer toxicity by damaging cell membranes. Type I systems sometimes include a third component. In the case of the well-characterised hok/sok system, in addition to the hok toxin and sok antitoxin, there is a third gene, called mok. This open reading frame almost entirely overlaps that of the toxin, and the translation of the toxin is dependent on the translation of this third component. Type II toxin-antitoxin systems are generally better-understood than type I. which has been found through bioinformatics searches to represent between 37 and 42% of all predicted type II loci. The proteins are typically around 100 amino acids in length, whereas toxins from the MazF family are endoribonucleases that cleave cellular mRNAs, tRNAs or rRNAs at specific sequence motifs. The most common toxic activity is the protein acting as an endonuclease, also known as an interferase. One of the key features of the TAs is the autoregulation. The antitoxin and toxin protein complex bind to the operator that is present upstream of the TA genes. This results in repression of the TA operon. The key to the regulation are (i) the differential translation of the TA proteins and (ii) differential proteolysis of the TA proteins. As explained by the "Translation-reponsive model", the degree of expression is inversely proportional to the concentration of the repressive TA complex. The TA complex concentration is directly proportional to the global translation rate. The higher the rate of translation more TA complex and less transcription of TA mRNA. Lower the rate of translation, lesser the TA complex and higher the expression. Hence, the transcriptional expression of TA operon is inversely proportional to translation rate. A third protein can sometimes be involved in type II toxin-antitoxin systems. in the case of the ω-ε-ζ (omega-epsilon-zeta) system, the omega protein is a DNA binding protein that negatively regulates the transcription of the whole system. Other toxin-antitoxin systems can be found with a chaperone as a third component. This chaperone is essential for proper folding of the antitoxin, thus making the antitoxin addicted to its cognate chaperone. Example systems Type III Type III toxin-antitoxin systems rely on direct interaction between a toxic protein and an RNA antitoxin. The toxic effects of the protein are neutralised by the RNA gene. Crystallographic analysis of ToxIN has found that ToxN inhibition requires the formation of a trimeric ToxIN complex, whereby three ToxI monomers bind three ToxN monomers; the complex is held together by extensive protein-RNA interactions. Type IV Type IV toxin-antitoxin systems are similar to type II systems, because they consist of two proteins. Unlike type II systems, the antitoxin in type IV toxin-antitoxin systems counteracts the activity of the toxin, and the two proteins do not necessarily interact directly. DarTG1 and DarTG2 are type IV toxin-antitoxin systems that modify DNA. Their toxins add ADP-ribose to guanosine bases (DarT1 toxin) or thymidine bases (DarT2 toxin), and their antitoxins remove the toxic modifications (NADAR antitoxin from guanosine and DarG antitoxin from thymidine). Type V ghoST is a type V toxin-antitoxin system, in which the antitoxin (GhoS) cleaves the ghoT mRNA. This system is regulated by a type II system, mqsRA. Type VI socAB is a type VI toxin-antitoxin system that was discovered in Caulobacter crescentus. The antitoxin, SocA, promotes degradation of the toxin, SocB, by the protease ClpXP. Type VII Type VII has been proposed to include systems hha/tomB, tglT/takA and hepT/mntA, all of which neutralise toxin activity by post-translational chemical modification of amino acid residues. Type VIII Type VIII includes the system creTA. In this system, the antitoxin creA serves as a guide RNA for a CRISPR-Cas system. Due to incomplete complementarity between the creA guide and the creAT promoter, the Cas complex does not cleave the DNA, but instead remains at the site, where it blocks access by RNA polymerase, preventing expression of the creT toxin (a natural instance of CRISPRi). When expressed, the creT RNA will sequester the rare arginine codon tRNAUCU, stalling translation and halting cell metabolism. ==Biotechnological applications==

The biotechnological applications of toxin-antitoxin systems have begun to be realised by several biotechnology organisations. A primary usage is in maintaining plasmids in a large bacterial cell culture. In an experiment examining the effectiveness of the hok/sok locus, it was found that segregational stability of an inserted plasmid expressing beta-galactosidase was increased by between 8 and 22 times compared to a control culture lacking a toxin-antitoxin system. In large-scale microorganism processes such as fermentation, progeny cells lacking the plasmid insert often have a higher fitness than those who inherit the plasmid and can outcompete the desirable microorganisms. A toxin-antitoxin system maintains the plasmid thereby maintaining the efficiency of the industrial process. Ensuring a plasmid accepts an insert is a common problem of DNA cloning. Toxin-antitoxin systems can be used to positively select for only those cells that have taken up a plasmid containing the inserted gene of interest, screening out those that lack the inserted gene. An example of this application comes from the ccdB-encoded toxin, which has been incorporated into plasmid vectors. The gene of interest is then targeted to recombine into the ccdB locus, inactivating the transcription of the toxic protein. Thus, cells containing the plasmid but not the insert perish due to the toxic effects of CcdB protein, and only those that incorporate the insert survive. == See also ==