TraitMech

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AbiC system

traitmech:000320 · CLASS · PROPOSED

An abortive infection system in which an organism possesses an abiC-family locus represented by the DefenseFinder AbiC__AbiC profile and exemplified by the Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis ME2 pTN20 determinant whose abiC structural gene confers Prf abortive resistance to small isometric-headed phage p2, reducing plaquing, plaque size, and burst size while killing most infected Prf-positive cells.

Trait evidence (10)

  • PMID:1429469
    The genetic determinant for Prf (phage resistance five) was subcloned from the conjugative plasmid pTN20

    Durmaz et al. subcloned the Prf determinant from the Lactococcus lactis ME2 conjugative plasmid pTN20.

  • PMID:1429469
    Prf reduces the efficiency of plaquing to 10(-2) to 10(-3) and decreases the plaque size and burst size of the small isometric-headed phage p2

    Durmaz et al. measured Prf-dependent reductions in p2 phage plating efficiency, plaque size, and burst size.

  • PMID:1429469
    Prf does not prevent phage adsorption or promote restriction and modification activities

    Durmaz et al. distinguished Prf activity from adsorption blocking and restriction-modification activities.

  • PMID:1429469
    90% of Prf+ cells infected with phage p2 die. Thus, phage infections in Prf+ cells are aborted.

    Durmaz et al. showed that most Prf-positive cells infected with phage p2 die and interpreted those p2 infections as aborted.

  • PMID:1429469
    DNA sequencing identified a 1,056-nucleotide structural gene designated abiC

    Durmaz et al. identified the abiC structural gene in the Prf determinant.

  • PMID:1429469
    Prf+ expression was obtained when abiC was subcloned into the lactococcal expression vector pMG36e

    Durmaz et al. showed that abiC expression is sufficient for Prf-positive activity in the pMG36e expression vector.

  • PMID:1429469
    Unlike abiA, the action of abiC does not appear to affect DNA replication

    Durmaz et al. left AbiC downstream mechanism unresolved but distinguished it from AbiA-associated DNA-replication effects.

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
    AbiC | 10\.1016/j\.mib\.2005\.06\.006 | Phage abortive infection in lactococci: variations on a theme

    The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named AbiC model namespace to a lactococcal abortive-infection review.

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv
    AbiC AbiC 1 1 AbiC__AbiC

    The DefenseFinder rules table models AbiC as a one-component system requiring the AbiC__AbiC profile.

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md
    | AbiC__AbiC | AbiC__AbiC | AbiC | Custom | 20 |

    The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records AbiC__AbiC under the AbiC model namespace.

AbiC Prf activity aborts lactococcal phage p2 infection

Conservative system-level sketch linking an abiC-family locus to Prf abortive-infection activity, reduced p2 phage propagation, Prf-positive infected-cell death, and AbiC-system possession without asserting an unresolved molecular target.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures AbiC as a named DefenseFinder single-profile abortive-infection system whose ME2 pTN20 prototype restricts small isometric-headed phage p2. It leaves the direct phage trigger, AbiC molecular function, cell-death route, natural locus breadth, and phage escape routes unresolved.

AbiC Prf activity aborts lactococcal phage p2 infection Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for AbiC system.

Edge evidence

  • abiC locus contributes to AbiC Prf activity RO:0002326

    The abiC-family locus encodes the Prf abortive-infection phage-resistance determinant, and DefenseFinder models AbiC as a one-profile system.

  • AbiC Prf activity contributes to p2 phage propagation reduction RO:0002326

    AbiC Prf activity reduces phage p2 plating, plaque size, and burst size.

    • PMID:1429469 Prf reduces the efficiency of plaquing to 10(-2) to 10(-3) and decreases the plaque size and burst size of the small isometric-headed phage p2 Durmaz et al. measured reduced p2 plating efficiency, plaque size, and burst size in Prf-positive cells.
  • AbiC Prf activity contributes to Prf-positive infected cell death RO:0002326

    AbiC Prf-positive activity is associated with death of most phage p2-infected host cells.

    • PMID:1429469 90% of Prf+ cells infected with phage p2 die. Thus, phage infections in Prf+ cells are aborted. Durmaz et al. connect the Prf-positive phenotype to infected-cell death and aborted p2 infection.
  • p2 phage propagation reduction confers AbiC system METPO:2007700

    Reduced p2 phage propagation realizes the AbiC abortive-infection trait.

    • PMID:1429469 Prf reduces the efficiency of plaquing to 10(-2) to 10(-3) and decreases the plaque size and burst size of the small isometric-headed phage p2 Durmaz et al. measured reduced p2 plating efficiency, plaque size, and burst size in Prf-positive cells.
    • PMID:1429469 Thus, abiC represents a second abortive system found in ME2 that acts at a different point of the phage lytic cycle. Durmaz et al. place abiC in the abortive-infection class and distinguish it from the AbiA system.
    • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md AbiC | 10\.1016/j\.mib\.2005\.06\.006 | Phage abortive infection in lactococci: variations on a theme The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named AbiC model namespace to a lactococcal abortive-infection review.
  • AbiC system is a abortive infection system rdfs:subClassOf

    AbiC system possession is an abortive-infection-system trait.

    • PMID:1429469 Thus, abiC represents a second abortive system found in ME2 Durmaz et al. place abiC in the abortive-infection class of phage defense.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1128/jb.174.22.7463-7469.1992

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (1)

  • AbiC RELATED_SYNONYM · https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Canonical examples (1)

Organisms cited as exemplars of this trait. Taxon ids are NCBITaxon and link out to the NCBI record.

  • Lactococcus lactis NCBITaxon:1358 DOI:10.1128/jb.174.22.7463-7469.1992 Durmaz et al. subcloned the Prf determinant from the Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis ME2 conjugative plasmid pTN20 and showed that the abiC structural gene confers Prf-positive abortive resistance against small isometric-headed phage p2.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (1)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Resolve the AbiC phage trigger, AbiC molecular function, and infected-cell death route before minting narrower AbiC mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN abic-trigger-and-death-route-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-20

Attached to causal_graphs#abic_locus_aborts_lactococcal_phage_p2_infection

Durmaz et al. support AbiC as a named lactococcal abortive-infection determinant that reduces p2 plating, plaque size, and burst size while killing most Prf-positive infected cells. DefenseFinder represents AbiC with a one-profile rule, but this first system-level record leaves the phage trigger, AbiC molecular function, cell-death route, natural locus breadth, and phage escape routes unresolved.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Minted AbiC system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under the abortive infection system parent after an ignored-and-hidden duplicate review found no exact live TraitMech, METPO, history, or prior proposal record; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v197.