Toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules are ubiquitous molecular switches controlling bacterial growth via the release of toxins that inhibit cell proliferation. Most of these toxins interfere with protein translation, but a growing variety of other mechanisms hints at a diversity that is not yet fully appreciated. Here, we characterize a group of FIC domain proteins as toxins of the conserved and abundant FicTA family of TA modules, and we reveal that they act by suspending control of cellular DNA topology.
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