identifier: traitmech:000228 label: AbiZ system definition: An abortive infection system in which an organism possesses an abiZ locus encoding a membrane-associated lactococcal phage-resistance determinant that accelerates infected-cell lysis through AbiZ-enhanced holin/lysin activity and restricts P335 phage propagation. definition_source: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 trait_category: GENOMICS term_kind: CLASS mapping_status: PROPOSED parent_traits: - traitmech:000214 evidence: - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: A single ORF, designated abiZ, was found to be responsible for a significant reduction in plaque size and an efficiency of plaquing (EOP) of 10−6, without affecting phage adsorption notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer localized the pTR2030 AbiZ phage resistance determinant to the abiZ open reading frame. - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: The new phage resistance gene, designated abiZ, encodes an abortive infection resistance which results in cell death after infection and appears to limit the production of progeny phage notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer place the abiZ determinant in the abortive-infection class rather than adsorption or restriction-modification defense. - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: The average burst size of φ31 on NCK203(pTRKH2) of 316 ± 68 was reduced by two logs to 3 ± 1.4 for NCK203(pTRKH2:E4) notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer show that the abiZ-containing subclone strongly reduces production of infectious phage progeny. - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: The measures of both optical density and viable cell count showed that holin- and lysin-induced lysis in the phage-free system occurred 30 min earlier when AbiZ was present notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer support AbiZ-associated acceleration of holin/lysin-driven cell lysis. - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: AbiZ enhances the permeability of cells in which holin alone was expressed notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer connect AbiZ to increased membrane-permeability in holin-induced cells. - reference: DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0298680 snippet: We focus our investigation on AbiZ, an abortive infection mechanism discovered and described by Durmaz et al. [18] as leading to premature cell lysis during phage infection, and one of the most understood Abi mechanisms on L. lactis notes: Philippe et al. support AbiZ as a named Lactococcus abortive infection mechanism with phage-induced premature lysis. - reference: DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0298680 snippet: NCK4 and IL6 cells were made electrocompetent and then electroporated with plasmid pTRK914 (pTRK686:abiZ, Cmr) to obtain NCK5 and IL7 (AbiZ+) using methods from [31] notes: Philippe et al. reused the abiZ-containing pTRK914 plasmid to construct independent AbiZ-positive Lactococcus strains. canonical_examples: - taxon_id: NCBITaxon:1358 taxon_label: Lactococcus lactis note: Durmaz and Klaenhammer localized the pTR2030 abiZ determinant from Lactococcus lactis ME2 and showed that abiZ expression in Lactococcus lactis NCK203 produced abortive phage resistance with premature lysis of phage-infected cells. reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 causal_graphs: - graph_id: abiz_premature_lysis_antiphage_activity title: AbiZ accelerates premature lysis to restrict P335 phages description: Evidence-backed process sketch linking an abiZ locus to enhanced holin/lysin activity, premature infected-cell lysis, restricted phage propagation, and abortive-infection system possession. scope_status: NONMECHANISTIC scope_notes: The graph captures AbiZ at the system level without asserting a direct physical AbiZ-holin interaction, an exact phage activator, or one known phage-escape mutation. nodes: - node_id: abiz_locus label: abiZ locus node_type: GENETIC_ELEMENT description: An abortive-infection locus encoding the membrane-associated AbiZ phage resistance determinant. - node_id: abiz_enhanced_holin_lysin_activity label: AbiZ-enhanced holin/lysin activity node_type: BIOLOGICAL_PROCESS description: Phage holin/lysin-associated lysis activity that is accelerated in cells carrying AbiZ. - node_id: premature_infected_cell_lysis label: premature infected-cell lysis node_type: BIOLOGICAL_PROCESS description: Early lysis of a phage-infected host cell before many infectious phage particles have been assembled. - node_id: restricted_phage_propagation label: restricted phage propagation node_type: BIOLOGICAL_PROCESS description: Reduced completion of P335 phage propagation in an AbiZ-containing infected host cell. - node_id: abiz_system_trait label: AbiZ system node_type: TRAIT grounding: traitmech:000228 description: Possession of a genome-encoded AbiZ premature-lysis abortive-infection system. - node_id: abortive_infection_system_trait label: abortive infection system node_type: TRAIT grounding: traitmech:000214 description: Possession of a genome-encoded abortive-infection phage defense system. edges: - subject: abiz_locus predicate: contributes to predicate_id: RO:0002326 object: abiz_enhanced_holin_lysin_activity description: The abiZ locus contributes to accelerated holin/lysin-driven lysis. evidence: - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: The measures of both optical density and viable cell count showed that holin- and lysin-induced lysis in the phage-free system occurred 30 min earlier when AbiZ was present notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer assayed φ31 holin and lysin expression in the presence of abiZ. - subject: abiz_enhanced_holin_lysin_activity predicate: contributes to predicate_id: RO:0002326 object: premature_infected_cell_lysis description: AbiZ-enhanced lysis activity contributes to premature lysis of phage-infected cells. evidence: - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: AbiZ enhances the permeability of cells in which holin alone was expressed notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer connect AbiZ to enhanced holin-associated membrane permeability. - subject: premature_infected_cell_lysis predicate: contributes to predicate_id: RO:0002326 object: restricted_phage_propagation description: Premature AbiZ-associated lysis limits the yield of infectious P335 phage progeny. evidence: - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: The average burst size of φ31 on NCK203(pTRKH2) of 316 ± 68 was reduced by two logs to 3 ± 1.4 for NCK203(pTRKH2:E4) notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer measured a lower single-step burst size in cells carrying the AbiZ-active E4 subclone. - subject: restricted_phage_propagation predicate: confers predicate_id: METPO:2007700 object: abiz_system_trait description: Restriction of P335 phage propagation realizes the AbiZ abortive-infection defense trait. evidence: - reference: DOI:10.1128/JB.00904-06 snippet: The new phage resistance gene, designated abiZ, encodes an abortive infection resistance which results in cell death after infection and appears to limit the production of progeny phage notes: Durmaz and Klaenhammer classify abiZ as an abortive-infection phage resistance gene. - subject: abiz_system_trait predicate: is a predicate_id: rdfs:subClassOf object: abortive_infection_system_trait description: AbiZ system possession is an abortive-infection-system trait. evidence: - reference: DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0298680 snippet: AbiZ, an abortive infection mechanism discovered and described by Durmaz et al. [18] as leading to premature cell lysis during phage infection notes: Philippe et al. place AbiZ in the abortive infection class of phage defense. curation_history: - timestamp: '2026-09-15T20:35:00Z' curator: codex action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID changes: Minted AbiZ system as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under the abortive infection system parent after an ignored-and-hidden duplicate review found no exact live TraitMech, METPO, or prior proposal record; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v105. llm_assisted: true - timestamp: '2026-09-15T21:04:27Z' curator: codex action: CURATED_CAUSAL_GRAPH changes: Corrected the AbiZ premature-lysis edge from mitigates restricted phage propagation to contributes to restricted phage propagation after local adversarial review issue 962 identified that the old predicate inverted the intended antiphage effect. llm_assisted: true