Back to the Roots: Deep View into the Evolutionary History of ADP-Ribosylation Opened by the DNA-Targeting Toxin-Antitoxin Module DarTG.

In this issue of Molecular Cell, Jankevicius et al. (2016) characterize the DarTG toxin-antitoxin module in which the DarT toxin ADP-ribosylates single-stranded DNA and the DarG antitoxin counteracts DarT by direct binding and by enzymatic removal of the ADP-ribosylation.