TAC-TIC, a high-throughput genetics method to identify triggers or blockers of bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems.

Toxin-antitoxin systems (TAs) are abundant in bacterial chromosomes and can arrest growth under stress, but usually remain inactive. TAs have been increasingly implicated in halting the growth of infected bacteria from bacteriophages or foreign genetic elements to protect the population (abortive infection, Abi). The vast diversity and abundance of TAs and other Abi systems suggest they play an important immunity role, yet what allows them to sense attack remains largely enigmatic.