ReviewJournal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany)2011
ε/ζ systems: their role in resistance, virulence, and their potential for antibiotic development.
Review in Journal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Overview of Type II and III Toxin-Antitoxin Systems with a Focus on Druggability.Toxins · 2018Pooled it
- Bacterial immune systems.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- A quinolone N-oxide antibiotic selectively targets Neisseria gonorrhoeae via its toxin-antitoxin system.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Expanding the genetic programmability of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum.Microbial biotechnology · 2024Review
- Type II bacterial toxin-antitoxins: hypotheses, facts, and the newfound plethora of the PezAT system.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2023Article
- Conjugative Plasmid pPPUT-Tik1-1 from a PermafrostInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Biological Functions of Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Systems in Bacteria.Microorganisms · 2021Review
- Modulators of protein-protein interactions as antimicrobial agents.RSC chemical biology · 2021Review
- A Novel Mobilizing Tool Based on the Conjugative Transfer System of the IncM Plasmid pCTX-M3.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2020Article
- Toxin ζ Reduces the ATP and Modulates the Uridine Diphosphate-N-acetylglucosamine Pool.Toxins · 2019Article
- Structural, functional and biological insights into the role of Mycobacterium tuberculosis VapBC11 toxin-antitoxin system: targeting a tRNase to tackle mycobacterial adaptation.Nucleic acids research · 2018Article
- TheToxins · 2018Article
- Complete genome sequence of uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolate UPEC 26-1.Genes & genomics · 2018Article
- The ng_ζ1 toxin of the gonococcal epsilon/zeta toxin/antitoxin system drains precursors for cell wall synthesis.Nature communications · 2018Article
- The effector AvrRxo1 phosphorylates NAD in planta.PLoS pathogens · 2017Article
- Toxin-antitoxin systems and their role in disseminating and maintaining antimicrobial resistance.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2017Review
- The Importance of the Expendable: Toxin-Antitoxin Genes in Plasmids and Chromosomes.Frontiers in microbiology · 2017Review
- 3'-NADP and 3'-NAADP, Two Metabolites Formed by the Bacterial Type III Effector AvrRxo1.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2016Article
- Structure, Biology, and Therapeutic Application of Toxin-Antitoxin Systems in Pathogenic Bacteria.Toxins · 2016Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cell death in bacteria can be triggered by activation of self-inflicted molecular mechanisms. Pathogenic bacteria often make use of suicide mechanisms in which the death of individual cells benefits survival of the population. Important elements for programmed cell death in bacteria are proteinaceous toxin-antitoxin systems. While the toxin generally resides dormant in the bacterial cytosol in complex with its antitoxin, conditions such as impaired de novo synthesis of the antitoxin or nutritional stress lead to antitoxin degradation and toxin activation. A widespread toxin-antitoxin family consists of the ε/ζ systems, which are distributed over plasmids and chromosomes of various pathogenic bacteria. In its inactive state, the bacteriotoxic ζ toxin protein is inhibited by its cognate antitoxin ε. Upon degradation of ε, the ζ toxin is released allowing this enzyme to poison bacterial cell wall synthesis, which eventually triggers autolysis. ε/ζ systems ensure stable plasmid inheritance by inducing death in plasmid-deprived offspring cells. In contrast, chromosomally encoded ε/ζ systems were reported to contribute to virulence of pathogenic bacteria, possibly by inducing autolysis in individual cells under stressful conditions. The capability of toxin-antitoxin systems to kill bacteria has made them potential targets for new therapeutic compounds. Toxin activation could be hijacked to induce suicide of bacteria. Likewise, the unique mechanism of ζ toxins could serve as template for new drugs. Contrarily, inhibition of virulence-associated ζ toxins might attenuate infections. Here we provide an overview of ε/ζ toxin-antitoxin family and its potential role in the development of new therapeutic approaches in microbial defense.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.