Toxin/antitoxin systems induce persistence and work in concert with restriction/modification systems to inhibit phage.

To date, there are no reports of phage infection-inducing persistence. Therefore, our results are important since we show for the first time that a phage-defense system, the MqsRAC toxin/antitoxin system, allows the host to survive infection by forming persister cells, rather than inducing cell suicide. Moreover, we demonstrate that the MqsRAC system works in concert with restriction/modification systems. These results imply that if phage therapy is to be successful, anti-persister compounds need to be administered along with phages.

Citation

Laura Fernández-García, Sooyeon Song, Joy Kirigo, Michael E Battisti, Maiken E Petersen, María Tomás, Thomas K Wood. Toxin/antitoxin systems induce persistence and work in concert with restriction/modification systems to inhibit phage. Microbiology spectrum. 2024 Jan 11;12(1):e0338823

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PMID: 38054715

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