TraitMech

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Druantia system

traitmech:000234 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A phage defense system in which an organism possesses a Druantia locus encoding a conserved DruE-family core and subtype-specific partner proteins.

Trait evidence (7)

  • DOI:10.1126/science.aar4120
    Druantia DruABCDE (type I) DruMFGE (type II) DruHE (III) pfam14236, pfam00270, pfam00271, pfam09369, COG1205, pfam00145, COG0270 Helicase, methylase 1,342 1,321 (2.6%)

    Doron et al. reported Druantia as a helicase- and methylase-associated system with Type I, Type II, and Type III locus architectures in their pangenome-scale antiphage system discovery screen.

  • DOI:10.1126/science.aar4120
    A Type I system cloned from E. coli UMEA 4076-1 into E. coli MG1655 rendered the engineered strain resistant against 4 of the 6 phages tested

    Doron et al. support Druantia as an experimentally validated phage-defense system rather than a source-only locus label.

  • DOI:10.64898/2026.05.12.724681
    There are several subtypes of Druantia that all share the DruE protein but differ in their associated genes

    Preprint v1, not peer-reviewed. Wu et al. support defining a broad Druantia family record around a common DruE component while keeping subtype partners separate.

  • DOI:10.64898/2026.05.12.724681
    Druantia III is a late-acting defence where DruH is the likely infection sensor and DruE is a helicase-nuclease effector that engages ssDNA-containing replication intermediates

    Preprint v1, not peer-reviewed. Wu et al. support the characterized Type III arrangement in which DruH likely senses infection and DruE acts as the helicase-nuclease effector.

  • DOI:10.64898/2026.05.12.724681
    we identified 6,885 bacterial genomes encoding complete Druantia III systems, defined by the presence of both DruE and DruH

    Preprint v1, not peer-reviewed. Wu et al. support Druantia III as a recurring bacterial DruE/DruH module rather than a single engineered construct.

  • DOI:10.64898/2026.05.12.724681
    DruE is the only component shared across Druantia subtypes, suggesting that DNA processing by a DruE-like helicase-nuclease is the conserved core function of Druantia

    Preprint v1, not peer-reviewed. Wu et al. infer a possible conserved DruE-family function from their type-III results and shared DruE. This is a hypothesis, not a demonstrated mechanism for every Druantia subtype.

  • DOI:10.1093/nar/gkab883
    the Druantia-like system lacks the type II requisite DruM and DruG proteins, instead encoding a hypothetical protein

    Payne et al., Results and Figure 2C: the recurring type-IV architecture contains DruE and DruF together with the newly named DruL, instead of the type-II DruM/G components. This is a literature-defined system-possession class, not an individual profile. The study tests Zorya III, Hachiman II and Lamassu II, not Druantia IV. Its computational classification does not demonstrate type-IV phage resistance or DruL chemistry.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.64898/2026.05.12.724681

Parent traits (1)

Children (4)

Synonyms (1)

  • Druantia EXACT_SYNONYM · DOI:10.1126/science.aar4120

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.

  • Escherichia coli NCBITaxon:562 DOI:10.1126/science.aar4120 Doron et al. cloned a Druantia Type I system from E. coli UMEA 4076-1 into E. coli MG1655 and showed that the engineered strain resisted four of six tested phages.

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 Druantia subtype mechanisms separately from architecture-based possession classes.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN druantia-subtype-mechanism-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-15

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

Doron et al. separated Type I DruABCDE, Type II DruMFGE, and Type III DruHE architectures and validated one Type I locus, while Wu et al. define a Type III mechanism in which DruH likely senses infection and DruE engages ssDNA-containing intermediates. Druantia III system now captures the DruE/DruH Type III branch from the pinned Druantia_III DefenseFinder row, but the parent record remains at the DruE-core family level until separate review resolves Type I and Type II partner functions, Type IV partner functions represented by the pinned Druantia_IV HMM rows, exact phage triggers, native host breadth, and Zorya-coupled versus standalone outputs across Druantia loci. Druantia type IV system (traitmech:000577) now captures the DruE/F/L architecture described by Payne et al. (DOI:10.1093/nar/gkab883), without the type-II DruM/G components. This resolves the architectural child, not type-IV experimental defense or partner chemistry. The family definition no longer requires universal helicase-nuclease DNA processing. Wu et al.'s family-wide conservation claim is a hypothesis in a type-III preprint. The overgeneralized parent graph is removed; the characterized III branch remains at traitmech:000560. New proposal v454 replaces the unminted v111 family row without changing the local family identifier or historical TSV. Type I architecture is now represented by traitmech:000578 Druantia type I system: DruB/C/D/E with optional DruA. Doron's optional DUF4338 component and the Ralstonia study's mapping of that domain to DruA qualify the earlier five-gene shorthand. The five-profile PADLOC rule and three-match DefenseFinder threshold are detection criteria, not identical biological definitions. This resolves the type-I architecture lead, not its partner functions or native-host mechanism. Type II architecture is now represented by traitmech:000579 Druantia type II system, defined by DruM/F/G/E possession using DOI:10.1093/nar/gkab883. Hou et al. version 2 (DOI:10.65215/LTSpreprints.2026.06.18.000273, 2026-07-08 preprint) adds Pf-5 DruE biochemistry and a limited heterologous assay, not full-system or native-host phage-defense validation. The architectural lead is resolved; accessory roles and the transition from DNA unwinding to phage restriction remain open.

Evidence

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Minted Druantia system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under the phage defense 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_v111.

  2. · TRACK_NARROWER_RECORD · codex

    Documented Druantia III as split out in the open Druantia subtype discussion after minting traitmech:000560 for the DefenseFinder-backed Druantia_III child; Type I, Type II, the pinned Druantia_IV HMM context, Zorya-coupled versus standalone activity, and finer Druantia activation mechanisms remain open.

  3. · SCOPE_DRUANTIA_FAMILY_AND_TYPE_IV · codex

    Addressed #1635: removed a universal DNA-processing requirement and the overgeneralized family graph, retaining evidence with preprint/hypothesis qualifiers. Linked the new type-IV architecture child traitmech:000577. The existing III record retains its characterized mechanism; type-IV defense remains unresolved. Proposal v454 supersedes the v111 family row.

  4. · TRACK_DRUANTIA_TYPE_I_CLASS · codex

    Linked traitmech:000578 using DOI:10.1126/science.aar4120 and DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00961. Resolved the type-I architecture lead with optional DruA and distinct detector thresholds. Kept family identity, definition, hierarchy, evidence and example unchanged; type-I functions and the type-II lead remain open.

  5. · TRACK_NARROWER_RECORD · codex

    Linked traitmech:000579 Druantia II possession using DOI:10.1093/nar/gkab883 and the July 8 version of DOI:10.65215/LTSpreprints.2026.06.18.000273. Resolved the architecture lead while preserving full-system mechanism uncertainty. Family identity, evidence and example are unchanged.