ArticleBMC biology2017
A widespread family of polymorphic toxins encoded by temperate phages.
Article in BMC biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Exo-Tox: Identifying Exotoxins from secreted bacterial proteins.BioData mining · 2025Article
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- Comparative study of adenosine 3'-pyrophosphokinase domains of MuF polymorphic toxins.FEBS open bio · 2025Article
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- Naturally competent bacteria and their genetic parasites-a battle for control over horizontal gene transfer?FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- An enterococcal phage protein inhibits type IV restriction enzymes involved in antiphage defense.Nature communications · 2024Article
- An enterococcal phage protein broadly inhibits type IV restriction enzymes involved in antiphage defense.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Stepwise Evolution of E. coli C and ΦX174 Reveals Unexpected Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) Diversity.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Identification of a broadly conserved family of enzymes that hydrolyze (p)ppApp.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Review
- Characterization of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia phage AXL1 as a member of the genus Pamexvirus encoding resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Introduction: the secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Intraspecific antagonism through viral toxin encoded by chronicPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Genomic discovery and structural dissection of a novel type of polymorphic toxin system in gram-positive bacteria.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2022Article
- Interactions between bacterial and phage communities in natural environments.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2022Review
- Gut microbiome ADP-ribosyltransferases are widespread phage-encoded fitness factors.Cell host & microbe · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPolymorphic toxins (PTs) are multi-domain bacterial exotoxins belonging to distinct families that share common features in terms of domain organization. PTs are found in all major bacterial clades, including many toxic effectors of type V and type VI secretion systems. PTs modulate the dynamics of microbial communities by killing or inhibiting the growth of bacterial competitors lacking protective immunity proteins.
resultsIn this work, we identified a novel widespread family of PTs, named MuF toxins, which were exclusively encoded within temperate phages and their prophages. By analyzing the predicted proteomes of 1845 bacteriophages and 2464 bacterial genomes, we found that MuF-containing proteins were frequently part of the DNA packaging module of tailed phages. Interestingly, MuF toxins were abundant in the human gut microbiome.
conclusionsOur results uncovered the presence of the MuF toxin family in the temperate phages of Firmicutes. The MuF toxin family is likely to play an important role in the ecology of the human microbiota where pathogens and commensal species belonging to the Firmicutes are abundant. We propose that MuF toxins could be delivered by phages into host bacteria and either influence the lysogeny decision or serve as bacterial weapons by inhibiting the growth of competing bacteria.
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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.