The extracellular contractile injection system is enriched in environmental microbes and associates with numerous toxins

Alexander Martin Geller; Inbal Pollin; David Zlotkin; Aleks Danov; Nimrod Nachmias; William B. Andreopoulos; Keren Shemesh; Asaf Levy

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23777-7

Nature Communications (Jun 2021)

The extracellular contractile injection system is enriched in environmental microbes and associates with numerous toxins

Alexander Martin Geller,
Inbal Pollin,
David Zlotkin,
Aleks Danov,
Nimrod Nachmias,
William B. Andreopoulos,
Keren Shemesh,
Asaf Levy

Affiliations

Alexander Martin Geller: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Inbal Pollin: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
David Zlotkin: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Aleks Danov: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Nimrod Nachmias: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
William B. Andreopoulos: Department of Computer Science, San Jose State University
Keren Shemesh: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Asaf Levy: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23777-7
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

Read online

The extracellular Contractile Injection System (eCIS) is a toxin-delivery particle that mediates interactions between bacteria and their invertebrate hosts. Here, the authors catalogue eCIS loci from 1,249 prokaryotic genomes, showing enrichment in non-pathogenic environmental microbes, and identifying eCIS-associated toxins that inhibit the growth of bacteria and/or yeast.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

About the journal