Publication Date
12-1-2021
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Nature Communications
Volume
12
Issue
1
DOI
10.1038/s41467-021-23777-7
Abstract
The extracellular Contractile Injection System (eCIS) is a toxin-delivery particle that evolved from a bacteriophage tail. Four eCISs have previously been shown to mediate interactions between bacteria and their invertebrate hosts. Here, we identify eCIS loci in 1,249 bacterial and archaeal genomes and reveal an enrichment of these loci in environmental microbes and their apparent absence from mammalian pathogens. We show that 13 eCIS-associated toxin genes from diverse microbes can inhibit the growth of bacteria and/or yeast. We identify immunity genes that protect bacteria from self-intoxication, further supporting an antibacterial role for some eCISs. We also identify previously undescribed eCIS core genes, including a conserved eCIS transcriptional regulator. Finally, we present our data through an extensive eCIS repository, termed eCIStem. Our findings support eCIS as a toxin-delivery system that is widespread among environmental prokaryotes and likely mediates antagonistic interactions with eukaryotes and other prokaryotes.
Funding Number
1535/20
Funding Sponsor
Israel Science Foundation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Computer Science
Recommended Citation
Alexander Martin Geller, Inbal Pollin, David Zlotkin, Aleks Danov, Nimrod Nachmias, William B. Andreopoulos, Keren Shemesh, and Asaf Levy. "The extracellular contractile injection system is enriched in environmental microbes and associates with numerous toxins" Nature Communications (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23777-7
