Toward the identification of a type I toxin-antitoxin system in the plasmid DNA of dairy Lactobacillus rhamnosus
Open accessAbstract
Plasmids carry genes that give bacteria beneficial traits and allow them to survive in competitive environments. In many cases, they also harbor toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems necessary for plasmid maintenance. TA systems are generally characterized by a stable “toxin”, a protein or peptide capable of killing the cell upon plasmid loss and by an unstable “antitoxin”, a protein or a non-coding RNA that inhibits toxin activity. Here we report data toward the identification of a RNA-regulated TA system in the plasmid DNA of L. rhamnosus isolated from cheese. The proposed TA system comprises two convergently transcribed RNAs: a toxin RNA encoding a 29 amino acid peptide named Lpt and an antitoxin non-coding RNA. Both toxin and antitoxin RNAs resulted upregulated under conditions mimicking cheese ripening. The toxicity of the Lpt peptide was demonstrated in E. coli by cloning the Lpt ORF under the control of an inducible promoter. Bioinformatics screening of the bacterial nucleotide database, shows that regions homologous to the Lpt TA locus are widely distributed in the Lactobacillus genus, particularly within the L. casei group, suggesting a relevant role of TA systems in plasmid maintenance of cheese microbiota.
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These interactions are critical for adaptation to stress, survival, evolution, and the expression of diverse phenotypes.
“These interactions are critical for adaptation to stress, survival, evolution, and the expression of diverse phenotypes [1,10,22,36,37].”
From Microbiota of Cheese Ecosystems: A Perspective on Cheesemaking (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
The Discussion (page unavailable) says L. casei-group bacteria survive hostile conditions through adaptation and that plasmids can contribute to stress tolerance. The Results also report specific growth phenotypes associated with toxin–antitoxin promoter inactivation. The paper does not establish that the unspecified interactions are critical to evolution or to the expression of diverse phenotypes. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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How the fewest become the greatest. L. casei’ s impact on long ripened cheeses.
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Microbiota of Cheese Ecosystems: A Perspective on Cheesemaking
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“These interactions are critical for adaptation to stress, survival, evolution, and the expression of diverse phenotypes [1,10,22,36,37].”
Self-citationLevante, A., Lazzi, C., Vatsellas, G., Chatzopoulos, D., Dionellis, V. S., Makrythanasis, P., Neviani, E., & Folli, C. (2021) · Microorganisms · doi:10.3390/microorganisms9030648 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Folli, C., Levante, A., Percudani, R., Amidani, D., Bottazzi, S., Ferrari, A., Rivetti, C., Neviani, E., & Lazzi, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Parma (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Folli, Claudia
- Lazzi, Camilla
- ORCID
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2017-09-21
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 12051-12051
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5608710
- OpenAlex
- W2755401582
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 2.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
- Keywords
- toxin-antitoxin systems, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, plasmid maintenance, non-coding RNA, cheese microbiota, cheese ripening, Lactobacillus casei
- MeSH terms
- Toxin-Antitoxin Systems, Amino Acid Sequence, Bacterial Proteins, Bacterial Toxins, Base Sequence, Cheese, DNA, Bacterial, Peptides, Plasmids, RNA, Bacterial, Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid, Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus
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