Azaca system

traitmech:000251 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A phage defense system in which an organism possesses an Azaca locus represented by ZacA, ZacB, and ZacC profiles that can protect bacteria from bacteriophage infection.

Trait evidence (7)

DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.017
discovery of 21 defense systems that protect bacteria from phages, based on computational genomic analyses and phage-infection experiments

Millman et al. report the computational and experimental cohort that DefenseFinder cites for Azaca as a bacterial anti-phage system.
DOI:10.1101/2022.05.11.491447
discovery of 21 new defense systems that protect bacteria from phages, based on computational genomic analyses and phage infection experiments

The bioRxiv version of Millman et al. independently carries the 21-system discovery claim linked from DefenseFinder's Azaca article registry.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
Azaca | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages

The DefenseFinder model registry maps the named Azaca system to the Millman et al. antiphage-system discovery preprint.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv
Azaca Azaca 2 3 Azaca__ZacA, Azaca__ZacB, Azaca__ZacC

The DefenseFinder rules table models Azaca with ZacA, ZacB, and ZacC mandatory-profile choices, requiring a three-gene minimum and at least two mandatory hits.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md
Azaca__ZacA | Azaca__ZacA | Azaca

The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records ZacA as an Azaca profile.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md
Azaca__ZacB | Azaca__ZacB | Azaca

The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records ZacB as an Azaca profile.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md
Azaca__ZacC | Azaca__ZacC | Azaca

The DefenseFinder HMM inventory records ZacC as an Azaca profile.

Azaca loci confer bacterial phage defense

Conservative system-level sketch linking possession of an Azaca locus to restricted bacteriophage propagation without asserting the unresolved phage trigger or molecular output.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures Azaca as a named anti-phage system with DefenseFinder ZacA, ZacB, and ZacC profiles while leaving its phage trigger, molecular substrate, antiviral effector output, and subtype breadth unresolved.

Edge evidence

Azaca locus contributes to restricted phage propagation RO:0002326
DefenseFinder maps Azaca to a bacterial anti-phage-system discovery preprint and represents Azaca loci through ZacA, ZacB, and ZacC component profiles.
- DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.017 discovery of 21 defense systems that protect bacteria from phages Millman et al. describe the anti-phage discovery cohort that the DefenseFinder Azaca registry row maps to the Azaca system.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md Azaca | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages The DefenseFinder registry maps Azaca itself to the Millman et al. bacterial antiphage-system discovery preprint.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv Azaca Azaca 2 3 Azaca__ZacA, Azaca__ZacB, Azaca__ZacC The DefenseFinder rules table supports ZacA, ZacB, and ZacC as Azaca system profile choices.
restricted phage propagation confers Azaca system METPO:2007700
Azaca-mediated phage restriction realizes the Azaca system trait.
- DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.017 discovery of 21 defense systems that protect bacteria from phages Millman et al. place the Azaca discovery cohort in the set of bacterial systems that protect against phages.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md Azaca | 10\.1101/2022\.05\.11\.491447 | An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages DefenseFinder records Azaca as a named system from the Millman et al. antiphage discovery preprint.
Azaca system is a phage defense system rdfs:subClassOf
Azaca system possession is a phage-defense-system trait.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md An expanding arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages DefenseFinder associates Azaca with the Millman et al. bacterial antiphage-system discovery paper.

Provenance

Identifier source: TraitMech local identifier
Definition source: DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.017

Parent traits (1)

phage defense system traitmech:000209

Synonyms (1)

Azaca EXACT_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.

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 Azaca phage triggers and effector outputs before minting narrower Azaca mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN azaca-mechanism-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-18

Attached to causal_graphs#azaca_locus_restricts_phage

Millman et al. and DefenseFinder support Azaca as a named anti-phage system with ZacA, ZacB, and ZacC profiles, but the trigger, molecular substrate, antiviral effector output, and subtype-specific mechanism are not resolved enough here to assert a narrower mechanistic child trait.

Curation history

2026-09-18T21:21:49Z · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex
Minted Azaca system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under phage defense system 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_v128.