TldR: TnpB's evolutionary shift from transposon nucleases to RNA-guided transcriptional regulators

Prarthana Mohanraju; Wen Y Wu

doi:10.1016/j.tim.2024.09.004

TldR: TnpB's evolutionary shift from transposon nucleases to RNA-guided transcriptional regulators

Trends Microbiol. 2024 Sep 19:S0966-842X(24)00230-0. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2024.09.004. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Prarthana Mohanraju¹, Wen Y Wu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anatomy & Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Einthovenweg 20, 2300 RC Leiden, the Netherlands; The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), Leiden node, the Netherlands. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Biology, Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Antonius Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV Groningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39304420
DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2024.09.004

Abstract

TnpB proteins are transposon-encoded nucleases involved in transposon DNA propagation. Wiegand et al. identified a new class of TnpB-derived proteins, called TnpB-like nuclease-dead repressors (TldRs), which function as RNA-guided transcriptional regulators targeting conserved promoter regions. In Enterobacteriaceae, bacteriophages use TldRs and an adjacent phage gene to modulate host flagellar assembly.