Escherichia coli ItaT is a type II toxin that inhibits translation by acetylating isoleucyl-tRNA(Ile)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Prokaryotic toxin–antitoxin (TA) modules are highly abundant and are involved in stress response and drug tolerance. The most common type II TA modules consist of two interacting proteins. The type II toxins are diverse enzymes targeting various essential intracellular targets. The antitoxin binds to cognate toxin and inhibits its function. Recently, TA modules whose toxins are GNAT-family acetyltransferases were described. For two such systems, the target of acetylation was shown to be aminoacyl-tRNA: the TacT toxin targets aminoacylated elongator tRNAs, while AtaT targets the amino acid moiety of initiating tRNAMet. We show that the itaRT gene pair from Escherichia coli encodes a TA module with acetyltransferase toxin ItaT that specifically and exclusively acetylates Ile-tRNAIle thereby blocking translation and inhibiting cell growth. ItaT forms a tight complex with the ItaR antitoxin, which represses the transcription of itaRT operon. A comprehensive bioinformatics survey of GNAT acetyltransferases reveals that enzymes encoded by validated or putative TA modules are common and form a distinct branch of the GNAT family tree. We speculate that further functional analysis of such TA modules will result in identification of enzymes capable of specifically targeting many, perhaps all, aminoacyl tRNAs.
Date Issued
2018-09-06
Date Acceptance
2018-06-07
Citation
Nucleic Acids Research, 2018, 46 (15), pp.7873-7885
ISSN
0305-1048
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Start Page
7873
End Page
7885
Journal / Book Title
Nucleic Acids Research
Volume
46
Issue
15
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000444148100035&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
MR/M009629/1
MR/M009629/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
ANTITOXIN SYSTEMS
FUNCTIONAL-ANALYSIS
TRANSFER-RNA
SEARCH
ACETYLTRANSFERASES
PERSISTENCE
RESISTANCE
DIVERSITY
DATABASE
MODULES
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-06-21