细菌中Ⅰ型毒素-抗毒素系统的研究进展

The Progress of Researches on Bacterial Type Ⅰ Toxin-Antitoxin Systems

毒素-抗毒素系统是广泛存在于细菌和真菌细胞内的一对小型遗传控制元件,毒素基因编码稳定的蛋白质分子,抗毒素基因编码的则是稳定性较差的蛋白质或者是具有调控功能的RNA.人们对于毒素分子在细胞内的生物靶标、分子结构与功能、体内调节机制等进行了大量的研究,不仅揭示了毒素-抗毒素的生理功能,而且为多种生物技术中的应用提供了新的素材.目前发现共有5大类型的毒素-抗毒素系统,其中Ⅰ型毒素-抗毒素系统的抗毒素分子为调节型RNA,可以通过多种不同途径与毒素蛋白质的mRNAs结合从而中和毒素的细胞毒性.Ⅰ型毒素-抗毒素系统以其独特的调节性RNA的调控方式,成为目前毒素-抗毒素研究中的重要热点.本文将对目前Ⅰ型毒素-抗毒素系统的研究进展进行综述,并对其可能的应用前景进行展望.

Toxin-antitoxin（TA） loci encode two-component genetic elements： a stable ＂toxin＂ protein and an unstable ＂antitoxin＂（a protein or a regulatory RNA） that neutralizes the toxin action. A lot of researches have been done on the cellular targets of toxins, the molecular structures and biological functions, and the mechanisms of antitoxin actions. The studies not only discovered a multitude of physiology roles of TA systems, but also led to a number of applications for various purposes. Currently, five TA systems have been discovered in countless bacteria and archaea. The antitoxins in type Ⅰ systems are regulatory RNAs which can employ several different modes to counteract toxin proteins and their special RNA regulatory strategies have made type Ⅰ TA systems become a focus of TA researches. Within this review, we will summarize our current knowledge on type Ⅰ TA system and look into the future of their potential applications.