Molecular and Cellular Microbiology Laboratory, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago 8910060, Chile.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Nov 13;25(22):12165. doi: 10.3390/ijms252212165.
Small genetic elements known as toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are abundant in bacterial genomes and involved in stress response, phage inhibition, mobile genetic elements maintenance and biofilm formation. Type II TA systems are the most abundant and diverse, and they are organized as bicistronic operons that code for proteins (toxin and antitoxin) able to interact through a nontoxic complex. However, HicAB is one of the type II TA systems that remains understudied. Here, we review the current knowledge of HicAB systems in different bacteria, their main characteristics and the existing evidence to associate them with some biological roles, are described. The accumulative evidence reviewed here, though modest, underscores that HicAB systems are underexplored TA systems with significant potential for future research.
小的遗传元件，被称为毒素-抗毒素（TA）系统，在细菌基因组中大量存在，参与应激反应、噬菌体抑制、移动遗传元件的维持和生物膜的形成。II 型 TA 系统是最丰富和多样化的，它们被组织为双顺反子操纵子，编码能够通过无毒复合物相互作用的蛋白质（毒素和抗毒素）。然而，HicAB 是 II 型 TA 系统之一，其研究仍不够充分。在这里，我们综述了不同细菌中 HicAB 系统的最新知识，包括它们的主要特征和与一些生物学作用相关的现有证据。这里综述的累积证据虽然有限，但强调了 HicAB 系统是研究不足的 TA 系统，具有很大的研究潜力。
