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HicA toxin without antitoxin

Link to this post \| posted 20 Mar, 2022 13:28
smolloy123	Hi All, We've discussed in the past toxins, especially those that are bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal, can exist in phage genomes without a cognate anti-toxin. I can't remember where we ended up on this topic. The CR2 phage starstruck (stop 4760, gp7 in phamerator) has very strong HHpred data supporting a HicA toxin but there is no sign of an antitoxin. It doesn't make sense to me to call it "toxin in toxin/antitoxin system, HicA-like" if there it isn't a toxin/antitoxin system. Any thoughts on this? Sally

Link to this post | posted 20 Mar, 2022 13:28

smolloy123

Hi All,
We've discussed in the past toxins, especially those that are bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal, can exist in phage genomes without a cognate anti-toxin. I can't remember where we ended up on this topic. The CR2 phage starstruck (stop 4760, gp7 in phamerator) has very strong HHpred data supporting a HicA toxin but there is no sign of an antitoxin. It doesn't make sense to me to call it "toxin in toxin/antitoxin system, HicA-like" if there it isn't a toxin/antitoxin system. Any thoughts on this?
Sally