This family includes the toxic component HepT of a type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) system, which has RNase activity. These proteins contain a HEPN (higher eukaryotes and prokaryotes nucleotide-binding) domain and are neutralised through tri-AMPylation b ...
This family includes the toxic component HepT of a type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) system, which has RNase activity. These proteins contain a HEPN (higher eukaryotes and prokaryotes nucleotide-binding) domain and are neutralised through tri-AMPylation by the cognate antitoxin MntA, containing a MNT (minimal nucleotidyltransferase) domain [1, 2, 3]. HepT-MnA form an heterooctamer (at a 2:6 ratio), a rare organisation for this kind of TA systems. HepT dimerises and enables the formation of a deep cleft at the HEPN-domain interface, containing the RX4-6H motif (where X is any amino acid and the residue immediately after the conserved R is typically a polar amino acid) as the active site that functions as an RNA-cleaving RNase. This type II TA system regulates cell motility and confers plasmid stability [2]. Due to the prevalence of these HEPN/MNT modules in bacteria and archaea, it has been suggested that these TA systems may also play a role in the environmental adaptation to extreme habitats [3].
