JB
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Zielenkiewicz, U.
Right arrow Articles by Ceglowski, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Zielenkiewicz, U.
Right arrow Articles by Ceglowski, P.
Journal of Bacteriology, September 2005, p. 6094-6105, Vol. 187, No. 17
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.17.6094-6105.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Toxin-Antitoxin System of the Streptococcal Plasmid pSM19035

Urszula Zielenkiewicz* and Piotr Ceglowski

Department of Microbial Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland

Received 22 November 2004/ Accepted 6 June 2005

pSM19035 of the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes is a low-copy-number plasmid carrying erythromycin resistance, stably maintained in a broad range of gram-positive bacteria. We show here that the {omega}-{varepsilon}-{zeta} operon of this plasmid constitutes a novel proteic plasmid addiction system in which the {varepsilon} and {zeta} genes encode an antitoxin and toxin, respectively, while {omega} plays an autoregulatory function. Expression of toxin Zeta is bactericidal for the gram-positive Bacillus subtilis and bacteriostatic for the gram-negative Escherichia coli. The toxic effects of {zeta} gene expression in both bacterial species are counteracted by proper expression of {varepsilon}. The {varepsilon}-{zeta} toxin-antitoxin cassette stabilizes plasmids in E. coli less efficiently than in B. subtilis.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbial Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland. Phone: (48) 22 592 12 06. Fax: (48) 22 658 46 36. E-mail: ulazet{at}ibb.waw.pl.


Journal of Bacteriology, September 2005, p. 6094-6105, Vol. 187, No. 17
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.17.6094-6105.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




This article has been cited by other articles:




Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. Infect. Immun. Eukaryot. Cell
Mol. Cell. Biol. J. Virol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 2005 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.