AbiH system

traitmech:000304 · CLASS · PROPOSED

An abortive infection system in which an organism possesses an abiH-family locus represented by the DefenseFinder AbiH__AbiH profile and exemplified by the Lactococcus lactis S94 abiH gene that encodes lactococcal phage abortive-infection resistance.

Trait evidence (7)

DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x
A gene which encodes resistance by abortive infection (Abi+) to bacteriophage was cloned from Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis S94

Prevots et al. cloned abiH from Lactococcus lactis S94 and connected the locus to bacteriophage resistance by abortive infection.
DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x
This gene was found to confer a reduction in efficiency of plating and plaque size for prolate-headed bacteriophage phi 53 (group I of homology) and total resistance to the small isometric-headed bacteriophage phi 59 (group III of homology)

Prevots et al. show that the cloned abiH gene restricts multiple lactococcal phages with distinct plating phenotypes.
DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x
The cloned gene is predicted to encode a polypeptide of 346 amino acid residues with a deduced molecular mass of 41 455 Da

Prevots et al. support abiH as an encoded phage-resistance protein rather than a noncoding marker.
DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x
No homology with any previously described genes was found

Prevots et al. leave the molecular class and effector mechanism of AbiH unresolved.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
AbiH | 10\.1111/j\.1574-6968\.1996\.tb08446\.x | Cloning and sequencing of the novel abortive infection gene abiH of Lactococcus lactis ssp\. lactis biovar\. diacetylactis S94

The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named AbiH system to the Prevots et al. abiH cloning paper.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv
AbiH AbiH 1 1 AbiH__AbiH

The DefenseFinder rules table models AbiH as a one-component system requiring the AbiH__AbiH profile.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md
| AbiH__AbiH | AbiH__AbiH | AbiH | PF14253.7 | 30.9 |

The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records the PF14253.7-backed AbiH__AbiH profile under the AbiH model namespace.

AbiH activity restricts lactococcal phages

Conservative system-level sketch linking an abiH-family locus to AbiH antiphage activity, reduced lactococcal phage plaque formation, restricted phage propagation, and abortive-infection system possession without asserting the unresolved phage trigger or molecular target.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures AbiH as a named DefenseFinder single-profile abortive-infection system whose prototype abiH gene reduces or abolishes plating by tested lactococcal phages while leaving the direct phage trigger, AbiH molecular function, host or phage target, arrest route, and phage escape routes unresolved.

Edge evidence

abiH locus contributes to AbiH antiphage activity RO:0002326
The abiH-family locus encodes an abortive-infection phage-resistance determinant, and DefenseFinder models AbiH as a one-profile system.
- DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x A gene which encodes resistance by abortive infection (Abi+) to bacteriophage Prevots et al. identify the cloned abiH gene as the abortive-infection phage-resistance determinant.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv AbiH AbiH 1 1 AbiH__AbiH The DefenseFinder rules table models AbiH as a one-component system requiring the AbiH__AbiH profile.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md | AbiH__AbiH | AbiH__AbiH | AbiH | PF14253.7 | 30.9 | The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records the PF14253.7-backed AbiH__AbiH profile under the AbiH model namespace.
AbiH antiphage activity mitigates lactococcal phage plaque formation METPO:2007407
AbiH activity reduces phi 53 plating and plaque size and confers total resistance to phi 59.
- DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x This gene was found to confer a reduction in efficiency of plating and plaque size for prolate-headed bacteriophage phi 53 (group I of homology) and total resistance to the small isometric-headed bacteriophage phi 59 Prevots et al. directly measure reduced or abolished plaque formation for tested lactococcal phages.
AbiH antiphage activity contributes to restricted phage propagation RO:0002326
Reduced plating and total phi 59 resistance indicate that AbiH limits completion of tested lactococcal phage infection.
- DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x reduction in efficiency of plating and plaque size for prolate-headed bacteriophage phi 53 (group I of homology) and total resistance to the small isometric-headed bacteriophage phi 59 (group III of homology) Prevots et al. support both a partial phi 53 block and total phi 59 resistance from the cloned abiH gene.
restricted phage propagation confers AbiH system METPO:2007700
Restriction of lactococcal phage propagation realizes the AbiH abortive-infection trait.
- DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x encodes resistance by abortive infection (Abi+) to bacteriophage Prevots et al. classify the cloned abiH resistance determinant as abortive infection.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md AbiH | 10\.1111/j\.1574-6968\.1996\.tb08446\.x | Cloning and sequencing of the novel abortive infection gene abiH of Lactococcus lactis ssp\. lactis biovar\. diacetylactis S94 The DefenseFinder article registry maps the named AbiH system to the Prevots et al. abiH cloning paper.
AbiH system is a abortive infection system rdfs:subClassOf
AbiH system possession is an abortive-infection-system trait.
- DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x encodes resistance by abortive infection (Abi+) to bacteriophage Prevots et al. support AbiH as an abortive-infection system.

Provenance

Identifier source: TraitMech local identifier
Definition source: DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x

Parent traits (1)

abortive infection system traitmech:000214

Synonyms (1)

AbiH 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:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08446.x Prevots et al. cloned abiH from Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis S94 and showed that the cloned locus confers abortive-infection phage resistance.

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 AbiH phage trigger, molecular activity, and direct arrest target before minting narrower AbiH mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN abih-trigger-and-effector-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-20

Attached to causal_graphs#abih_locus_restricts_lactococcal_phages

Prevots et al. support AbiH as a named lactococcal abortive-infection gene whose cloned S94 locus reduces or blocks plating by tested lactococcal phages, and DefenseFinder represents AbiH with a one-profile rule. This system-level record leaves the phage trigger, AbiH molecular function, direct cellular target, growth-arrest or cell-death route, and phage escape routes unresolved.

Curation history

2026-09-20T08:12:00Z · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex
Minted AbiH 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, or prior proposal record; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v181.