Bistable expression of a toxin-antitoxin system located in a cryptic prophage of Escherichia coliO157:H7

Abstract

Transcriptional regulation of bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems allows compensation of toxin and antitoxin proteins to maintain a neutral state and avoid cell intoxication unless TA genes are lost. Such models have been primarily studied in plasmids, but TAs are equally present in other mobile genetic elements, such as transposons and prophages.

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