UG/Abi: a Highly Diverse Family of Prokaryotic Reverse Transcriptases Associated with Defense Functions

Overview

Journal Nucleic Acids Res

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Biochemistry

Date 2022 Jun 1

PMID 35648479

Authors

Mario Rodriguez Mestre

Linyi Alex Gao

Shiraz A Shah

Adrian Lopez-Beltran

Alejandro Gonzalez-Delgado

Francisco Martinez-Abarca

Jaime Iranzo

Modesto Redrejo-Rodriguez

Feng Zhang

Nicolas Toro

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Reverse transcriptases (RTs) are enzymes capable of synthesizing DNA using RNA as a template. Within the last few years, a burst of research has led to the discovery of novel prokaryotic RTs with diverse antiviral properties, such as DRTs (Defense-associated RTs), which belong to the so-called group of unknown RTs (UG) and are closely related to the Abortive Infection system (Abi) RTs. In this work, we performed a systematic analysis of UG and Abi RTs, increasing the number of UG/Abi members up to 42 highly diverse groups, most of which are predicted to be functionally associated with other gene(s) or domain(s). Based on this information, we classified these systems into three major classes. In addition, we reveal that most of these groups are associated with defense functions and/or mobile genetic elements, and demonstrate the antiphage role of four novel groups. Besides, we highlight the presence of one of these systems in novel families of human gut viruses infecting members of the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla. This work lays the foundation for a comprehensive and unified understanding of these highly diverse RTs with enormous biotechnological potential.

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