TY - JOUR
T1 - UG/Abi
T2 - a highly diverse family of prokaryotic reverse transcriptases associated with defense functions
AU - Mestre, Mario Rodríguez
AU - Gao, Linyi Alex
AU - Shah, Shiraz A
AU - López-Beltrán, Adrián
AU - González-Delgado, Alejandro
AU - Martínez-Abarca, Francisco
AU - Iranzo, Jaime
AU - Redrejo-Rodríguez, Modesto
AU - Zhang, Feng
AU - Toro, Nicolás
N1 - © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.
PY - 2022/6/24
Y1 - 2022/6/24
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Humans
KW - Prokaryotic Cells
KW - RNA
KW - RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase/genetics
KW - Viruses/genetics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142338580&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/nar/gkac467
DO - 10.1093/nar/gkac467
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35648479
VL - 50
SP - 6084
EP - 6101
JO - Nucleic Acids Research
JF - Nucleic Acids Research
SN - 0305-1048
IS - 11
ER -