TraitMech

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AbiQ system

traitmech:000225 · CLASS · PROPOSED

An abortive infection system in which an organism possesses an AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin locus whose protein endoribonuclease and cognate RNA antitoxin module alter early phage mRNA profiles and restrict phage propagation after adsorption.

Trait evidence (6)

  • DOI:10.1128/AEM.64.12.4748-4756.1998
    the system encoded by pSRQ900 was classified as an abortive infection mechanism and was named AbiQ

    Emond et al. named AbiQ as a Lactococcus plasmid-encoded abortive infection system rather than an adsorption-blocking or restriction-modification defense.

  • DOI:10.1128/AEM.64.12.4748-4756.1998
    The frameshift mutation completely abolished host resistance to phages p2 and c21

    Emond et al. localized the phage-resistance phenotype to the abiQ open reading frame on the pSRQ900 fragment.

  • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13
    Lactococcus lactis AbiQ system, a type III toxin-antitoxin with antiviral activities

    Samson et al. support the type III protein-RNA toxin-antitoxin architecture of AbiQ.

  • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13
    AbiQ modified the early-expressed phage mRNA profiles

    Samson et al. connect AbiQ to altered early phage mRNA profiles during infection.

  • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13
    active against various phage families infecting Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

    Samson et al. support AbiQ as an antiphage system whose activity is not restricted to its native lactococcal host.

  • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13
    In the presence of AbiQ, additional small transcripts were observed

    Samson et al. observed altered P008 transcript profiles in phage-infected AbiQ-containing cells.

AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin activity disrupts phage mRNA profiles

Evidence-backed process sketch linking an AbiQ locus to type III toxin-antitoxin activity, altered early phage mRNA profiles, restricted phage propagation, and abortive-infection system possession.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures AbiQ at the system level without asserting a universal phage activator, exact AbiQ RNA target, or phage-escape path; Samson et al. show that multiple unrelated phage genes can be involved in the AbiQ phenotype.

AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin activity disrupts phage mRNA profiles Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for AbiQ system.

Edge evidence

  • AbiQ locus contributes to AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin activity RO:0002326

    The AbiQ locus encodes a type III protein-RNA toxin-antitoxin antiphage system.

    • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13 Lactococcus lactis AbiQ system, a type III toxin-antitoxin with antiviral activities Samson et al. define AbiQ as a type III toxin-antitoxin system with antiviral activity.
  • AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin activity contributes to early phage mRNA profile modification RO:0002326

    AbiQ activity alters the abundance pattern of early-expressed phage transcripts during infection.

    • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13 AbiQ modified the early-expressed phage mRNA profiles Samson et al. directly assayed phage transcription in AbiQ-containing Lactococcus cells.
  • AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin activity contributes to restricted phage propagation RO:0002326

    AbiQ type III toxin-antitoxin activity contributes to restricted phage propagation in infected host cells.

    • DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13 active against various phage families infecting Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria Samson et al. support AbiQ as an antiphage type III toxin-antitoxin system.
  • restricted phage propagation confers AbiQ system METPO:2007700

    Restriction of phage propagation realizes the AbiQ antiphage defense trait.

    • DOI:10.1128/AEM.64.12.4748-4756.1998 The frameshift mutation completely abolished host resistance to phages p2 and c21 Emond et al. measured reduced phage plaquing on cells carrying the native AbiQ plasmid.
  • AbiQ system is a abortive infection system rdfs:subClassOf

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

    • DOI:10.1128/AEM.64.12.4748-4756.1998 the system encoded by pSRQ900 was classified as an abortive infection mechanism and was named AbiQ Emond et al. place AbiQ in the abortive infection class of phage defense.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1128/JB.00296-13

Parent traits (1)

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/AEM.64.12.4748-4756.1998 Emond et al. isolated the pSRQ900 plasmid from Lactococcus lactis W-37, named its encoded abortive-infection mechanism AbiQ, and showed AbiQ-dependent resistance to c2- and 936-like lactococcal phages.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Minted AbiQ 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_v102.