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Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The mazEF Family

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Prokaryotic Toxin-Antitoxins

Abstract

The mazEF locus is one of the most extensively characterized toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems. MazF is an endoribonuclease that cleaves RNA at a specific sequence. MazF is conserved in most bacterial and some archaeal species. Since the discovery of MazF in Escherichia coli, a number of MazF homologues and other mRNA interferases with different mRNA cleavage specificities have been elucidated. Here we describe their unique biochemical features, the regulatory mechanisms of the MazF activity and presumed physiological roles of MazF in the cells.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to dedicate this chapter for late Dr. Tsutomu Shimazu, who demonstrated for the first time the MazF toxicity in mammalian cells (Shimazu et al. 2007). We also thank to Dr. Vikas Nanda, Mr. Jung-Ho Park, and Ms. Sehrish Ajimal for their critical reading of this chapter. This work was supported by an NIH grant, 1RO1GM081567 and 3RO1GM081567-02S1.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Center for Advance Biotechnology and Medicine, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Yoshihiro Yamaguchi & Masayori Inouye

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  1. Yoshihiro Yamaguchi
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  2. Masayori Inouye
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Correspondence to Masayori Inouye .

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  1. Inst. for Cell and Molecular Bioscience, Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, Richardson Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4AX, United Kingdom

    Kenn Gerdes

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Yamaguchi, Y., Inouye, M. (2013). Type II Toxin-Antitoxin Loci: The mazEF Family. In: Gerdes, K. (eds) Prokaryotic Toxin-Antitoxins. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33253-1_7

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