Genomic assortment and interactive insights of the chromosomal encoded control of cell death (ccd) toxin-antitoxin (TA) module in Xenorhabdus nematophila

Abstract

In the present circumstances, toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules have a great consideration due to their elusive role in bacterial physiology. TA modules consist of a toxic part and a counteracting antitoxin part and these are abundant genetic loci harbored on bacterial plasmids and chromosomes. The control of cell death (ccd) TA locus was the first identified TA module and its unitary function (such as plasmid maintenance) has been described, however, the function of its chromosomal counterparts is still ambiguous. Here, we are exploring the genomic assortment, structural and functional association of chromosomally encoded ccdAB TA homolog (ccdAB^Xn1) in the genome of an entomopathogenic bacterium Xenorhabdus nematophila. This bacterium is a symbiotic model with the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae that infects and kills the host insect. By genomic assortment analysis, our observations suggested that CcdA antitoxin homologs are not more closely related than CcdB toxin homologs. Further results suggest that the ccdAB^Xn1 TA homolog has sulphonamide (such as 4C6, for CcdA homolog) and peptide (such as gyrase, for CcdB homolog) ligand partners with a typical TA interaction network that may affect essential cellular metabolism of the X. nematophila. Collectively, our results improve the knowledge and conception of the metabolic interactive role of ccdAB TA homologs in X. nematophila physiology.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• toxin
• antitoxin
• Xenorhabdus nematophila
• metabolism
• ccdAB

Disclosure statement

All the authors read and approved the manuscript without any conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research work was financially supported by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India, through project no. 37(1658)/15-EMR-II to Dr. Jitendra Singh Rathore. Mohit Yadav received a senior research fellowship (SRF) from the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India for this project.