id: Pfam:PF14337
pfam_id: PF14337
name: Abortive infection alpha
short_name: Abi_alpha
seed_status: EX_DUF
characterization_status: UNSCORED
curation_status: SEEDED
source_url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/api/entry/pfam/PF14337
counters:
  proteins: 1144
  matches: 1144
  proteomes: 945
  taxa: 1811
  structures: 1
  alphafold_models: 693
  domain_architectures: 2
provenance:
  snapshot_id: interpro-pfam-duf-2026-10-10
  path: data/worklists/interpro-pfam-duf-2026-10-10.json
  sha256: 17fb625876c9326ed284263a47bcd84e0d7844a31c040dc06cd2260c36f1c383
  generated_at: '2026-10-10T07:44:21.614711Z'
  source_url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/api/entry/pfam/
interpro_id: InterPro:IPR025506
description: Enterococci such as Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium are part of the normal
  human gut microbiota. However they can also be a source of nosocomial infections specially in immunocompromised
  patients. Virulent bacteriophages, i.e., viruses that infect and obligatorily lyse bacteria might provide
  alternative options for combating them. Yet, bacterial resistance to phage is taking place in similar
  fashion to antibiotic resistance. This might be, in part due to temperate phages that are stably associated
  with their host. They compete for their bacterial host, in addition to repressor-dependent immunity
  against similar phages, some phage express genes conferring resistance to infection by more or less
  unrelated phages. They can encode abortive infection (Abi) mechanisms that cause an interruption of
  invasive phage development and a premature death of the infected bacteria. For instance, E. faecalis
  V583 prophage 6 confers resistance to the virulent phage Idefix infection mainly due to Abia-alpha protein.
  This Pfam family corresponds to Abi-alpha protein sequences which is mostly found in prophages, arguing
  that it is essentially a temperate phage weapon to fight against other phages [[cite:PUB00101291]].