AUTHOR=Kim Yoonji , Choi Eunsil , Hwang Jihwan TITLE=Functional Studies of Five Toxin-Antitoxin Modules in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=7 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.02071 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2016.02071 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
Toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems, which consist of an intracellular toxin and its antidote (antitoxin), are encoded by ubiquitous genetic modules in prokaryotes. Commonly, the activity of a toxin is inhibited by its antitoxin under normal growth conditions. However, antitoxins are degraded in response to environmental stress, and toxins liberated from antitoxins consequently induce cell death or growth arrest. In free-living prokaryotes, TA systems are often present in large numbers and are considered to be associated with the adaptation of pathogenic bacteria or extremophiles to various unfavorable environments by shifting cells to a slow growth rate. Genomic analysis of the human pathogen