TraitMech

TraitMech › GENOMICS

RAZR system

traitmech:000411 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A phage defense system in which an organism possesses a locus encoding a RAZR zinc-finger HEPN RNase that can form a phage-triggered higher-order ring complex, cleave RNA broadly, inhibit translation, and restrict phage propagation.

Trait evidence (3)

  • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8
    assembles into an active, 24-meric ring

    Zhang et al. define RAZR as a ring-activated zinc-finger RNase whose phage-triggered higher-order assembly generates an active 24-subunit ring.

  • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8
    cleave RNA nonspecifically to inhibit translation and restrict phage propagation

    Zhang et al. connect activated RAZR complexes to broad RNA cleavage, translational shutdown, and restriction of phage growth.

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md
    | RAZR | 10\.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 | Bacterial immune activation via supramolecular assembly with phage triggers |

    The pinned DefenseFinder article registry maps the named RAZR system to the Zhang et al. Nature article; the pinned DefenseFinder HMM inventory (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md) and rules table (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv) do not list RAZR, so this row is name-to-paper evidence rather than model-component evidence.

RAZR ring assembly activates RNase defense

Conservative system-level sketch linking a RAZR locus and a phage ring trigger to RAZR oligomerization, nonspecific RNA cleavage, translation inhibition, phage-propagation restriction, and RAZR system possession.

NONMECHANISTIC · The graph captures RAZR as a named phage-defense RNase activated by phage protein ring scaffolds while leaving natural hosts, the complete phage-trigger set, exact RNA-substrate preference, and profile-to-component DefenseFinder modeling unresolved.

RAZR ring assembly activates RNase defense Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for RAZR system.

Edge evidence

  • RAZR locus contributes to RAZR oligomerization RO:0002326

    A RAZR locus encodes the RNase that assembles into an active phage-triggered ring complex.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 assembles into an active, 24-meric ring Zhang et al. connect the RAZR bacterial immunity protein to phage-triggered active ring assembly.
  • phage ring trigger contributes to RAZR oligomerization RO:0002326

    Phage-encoded ring scaffolds provide the geometry that activates RAZR assembly.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 formed by two unrelated phage proteins Zhang et al. show that RAZR activation can be triggered by ring scaffolds from unrelated phage proteins.
  • RAZR oligomerization contributes to nonspecific RNA cleavage RO:0002326

    RAZR ring assembly activates broad RNase activity.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 enables RAZR to cleave RNA nonspecifically Zhang et al. place nonspecific RNA cleavage downstream of RAZR complex formation.
  • nonspecific RNA cleavage contributes to translation inhibition RO:0002326

    Broad RAZR-mediated RNA cleavage inhibits cellular translation during phage infection.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 inhibit translation Zhang et al. identify translation inhibition as an output of activated RAZR-mediated RNA cleavage.
  • translation inhibition mitigates phage propagation METPO:2007407

    Translation inhibition caused by RAZR activation restricts phage propagation.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 restrict phage propagation Zhang et al. connect RAZR-dependent translation inhibition to restricted phage propagation.
  • translation inhibition contributes to restricted phage propagation RO:0002326

    RAZR-associated translation inhibition realizes restriction of phage propagation.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 to inhibit translation and restrict phage propagation Zhang et al. report that the same activated RAZR RNase output inhibits translation and restricts phage propagation.
  • restricted phage propagation confers RAZR system METPO:2007700

    RAZR-mediated phage restriction realizes the RAZR system trait.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 cleave RNA nonspecifically to inhibit translation and restrict phage propagation Zhang et al. support restricted phage propagation as an output of active RAZR defense complexes.
    • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md | RAZR | 10\.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 | Bacterial immune activation via supramolecular assembly with phage triggers | The pinned DefenseFinder article registry maps the named RAZR system to the Zhang et al. Nature article; the pinned DefenseFinder HMM inventory (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md) and rules table (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv) do not list RAZR, so this row is name-to-paper evidence rather than model-component evidence.
  • RAZR system is a phage defense system rdfs:subClassOf

    RAZR system possession is a phage-defense-system trait.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 assembles into an active, 24-meric ring Zhang et al. frame RAZR as a bacterial immune RNase whose activated state restricts phage propagation.
    • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/List_system_article.md | RAZR | 10\.1038/s41586-025-10060-8 | Bacterial immune activation via supramolecular assembly with phage triggers | The pinned DefenseFinder article registry maps the named RAZR system to the Zhang et al. Nature article; the pinned DefenseFinder HMM inventory (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/Liste_hmm_system.md) and rules table (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdmparis/defense-finder-models/afb0e5a8b466be53586b13266f5d38d98c3ac268/DefenseFinder_rules.tsv) do not list RAZR, so this row is name-to-paper evidence rather than model-component evidence.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (1)

  • RAZR RELATED_SYNONYM · DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-10060-8

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 RAZR natural hosts, phage ring triggers, RNA-substrate breadth, and model coverage before minting narrower RAZR mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN razr-trigger-model-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-27

Attached to causal_graphs#razr_ring_trigger_restricts_phage

Zhang et al. support RAZR as a ring-activated zinc-finger HEPN RNase that can oligomerize around unrelated phage ring scaffolds, but natural locus breadth, the full phage-trigger set, exact RNA-substrate preference, and absence from the pinned DefenseFinder HMM/rules rows need further review.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Minted RAZR system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under phage defense system after an ignored-and-hidden duplicate review found no exact live TraitMech, METPO, history, or prior proposal record; left canonical_examples empty until direct native-locus evidence supports a microbial exemplar; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v288.