ArticleNucleic acids research2005
Toxin-antitoxin loci are highly abundant in free-living but lost from host-associated prokaryotes.
Article in Nucleic acids research, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 514 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
514 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 895 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Overview of Type II and III Toxin-Antitoxin Systems with a Focus on Druggability.Toxins · 2018Pooled it
- A haloarchaeal VapBC toxin-antitoxin system: regulatory mechanism and role in establishing population heterogeneity to facilitate survival of subpopulations under stress conditions.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- A DNA damage-activated kinase phosphorylates a transcriptional repressor to control bacterial immune pathway expression.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- An ancestral transmembrane transcription factor couples cell envelope regulation and the SOS response in Caulobacter crescentus.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Social microbiome transmission predicts microbial specialization and host lifespan in a wild primate.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Systematic screening of archaeal MazF homologs reveals Tth-MazF1, a versatile, sequence-specific ribonuclease from Thermococcus thioreducens.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
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- Inhibition of Targeted Bacterial Growth Using MazF-Expressing Phagemids: A Novel Therapeutic Approach Based on Endoribonuclease Toxin Molecules.Microbiology and immunology · 2026Article
- A DNA damage-activated kinase controls bacterial immune pathway expression.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Insights into toxin-antitoxin systems in the genusApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Review
- Functional Coupling and Evolutionary Relationships Between Toxin-Antitoxin Systems and CRISPR-Cas Systems.Toxins · 2025Review
- Hidden diversity inMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Toxin-antitoxins and sigma factors may optimize the fitness of free-living bacteria throughout the life cycle via an integrated nutrient-responsive cybernetic system.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Review
- Picocyanobacteria in the Chesapeake Bay: isolation, diversity, and adaptation.Marine life science & technology · 2025Review
- Antitoxin control of optimal transcriptional repression in the atypical HigB-HigA toxin-antitoxin system from Proteus vulgaris.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- VapC toxins promote the pathogenesis of Rickettsia heilongjiangensis by cleaving essential RNAs from both Rickettsia and its host.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Article
- The VapBC-4 Characterization Indicates It Is a Bona Fide Toxin-Antitoxin Module ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Article
454 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Prokaryotic chromosomes code for toxin-antitoxin (TA) loci, often in multiple copies. In E.coli, experimental evidence indicates that TA loci are stress-response elements that help cells survive unfavorable growth conditions. The first gene in a TA operon codes for an antitoxin that combines with and neutralizes a regulatory 'toxin', encoded by the second gene. RelE and MazF toxins are regulators of translation that cleave mRNA and function, in interplay with tmRNA, in quality control of gene expression. Here, we present the results from an exhaustive search for TA loci in 126 completely sequenced prokaryotic genomes (16 archaea and 110 bacteria). We identified 671 TA loci belonging to the seven known TA gene families. Surprisingly, obligate intracellular organisms were devoid of TA loci, whereas free-living slowly growing prokaryotes had particularly many (38 in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and 43 in Nitrosomonas europaea). In many cases, TA loci were clustered and closely linked to mobile genetic elements. In the most extreme of these cases, all 13 TA loci of Vibrio cholerae were bona fide integron elements located in the V.cholerae mega-integron. These observations strongly suggest that TA loci are mobile cassettes that move frequently within and between chromosomes and also lend support to the hypothesis that TA loci function as stress-response elements beneficial to free-living prokaryotes.
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Registered trials
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