Toxin–antitoxin systems are widespread in bacterial genomes. They are usually composed
of two elements: a toxin that inhibits an essential cellular process and an antitoxin that …

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and persistence are associated with an elevated risk of
treatment failure and relapsing infections. They are thus important drivers of increased …

Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules are abundant genetic elements that encode a toxin
protein capable of inhibiting cell growth and an antitoxin that counteracts the toxin. The …

Small RNAs are ubiquitously present regulators in all kingdoms of life. Most bacterial and
archaeal small RNAs (sRNAs) act by antisense mechanisms on multiple target mRNAs …

Antisense transcription, which was initially considered by many as transcriptional noise, is
increasingly being recognized as an important regulator of gene expression. It is …

Persisters are dormant variants of regular cells that form stochastically in microbial
populations and are highly tolerant to antibiotics. High persister (hip) mutants of …

Almost all bacteria and many archaea contain genes whose expression inhibits cell growth
and may lead to cell death when overproduced, reminiscent of apoptotic genes in higher …

Bacteria induce stress responses that protect the cell from lethal factors such as DNA-
damaging agents. Bacterial populations also form persisters, dormant cells that are highly …

Bacteria possess numerous and diverse means of gene regulation using RNA molecules,
including mRNA leaders that affect expression in cis, small RNAs that bind to proteins or …

Background Proteinaceous toxins are observed across all levels of inter-organismal and
intra-genomic conflicts. These include recently discovered prokaryotic polymorphic toxin …