Bacterial virus anti-defence systems · sequence & structure resource

Encyclopaedia of Bacterial Virus Anti-Defence Systems


Protein: AdfN (anti-DarT factor NADAR)

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Overview

Mode of Action (MoA) removes ADP-ribose modifications from phage DNA.
Evidence AdfN was identified via recombination experiments between DarTG1-sensitive RB69 and resistant T4/T2 phages. Mapping of recombinant genomes pinpointed a 3′ region of gene 30.3 (renamed adfN) that correlates with DarTG1 resistance. Unlike RB69, which encodes a truncated AdfN protein due to a frameshift mutation, resistant phages encode full-length AdfN. Deletion of adfN in T2 or T4 rendered both phages sensitive to DarTG1, while ectopic expression of AdfN in E. coli restored RB69 infectivity in the presence of DarTG1. Point mutations in conserved catalytic residues (E36A, K43A) or truncation at the RB69 stop codon site impaired activity, indicating the requirement for enzymatic function. In vitro dot blot assays confirmed that purified AdfN protein removes ADP-ribose from DNA, directly counteracting DarT1’s toxic modification. Notably, AdfN did not interact with DarT1 in a two-hybrid assay and failed to protect E. coli from DarT1 toxicity in the absence of phage, suggesting that AdfN acts via enzymatic detoxification of modified DNA, not toxin binding, and requires phage context for full activity.
MoA Category uncategorised
Subtype(s) of the defence system(s) inhibited by the protein Defence Subtype Escherichia coli type IV TA system DarTG
Relevant publication(s) DOI 10.1101/2024.07.11.602962, 10.1038/s41467-025-56887-7
Other components of the anti-defence system Multicomponent System -
Known structure in PDB PDB ID -
Genome(s) encoding the protein Protein Source T4-like phages
Defence system(s) inhibited by the protein Defences TA

3D structure

AlphaFold 3 model.

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Feature viewer - predicted secondary structure

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Pfam annotations

Pfam Name Pfam Acc Pfam Length Colour HMM Start HMM End Ali Start Ali End Env Start Env End Evalue
Phage_30_3 PF08010 138 1 138 11 150 11 150 2.8e-72

Sequence Viewer

Amino acid position: -

MSELEIRSNFRWPSCALSNFAQWPFVMDGIQFGGLEGFLQGCKVKNVEQQRRIFGLSGLAAQQAGRSYARAQDRGTLFWLGVPFSRYSPAWKELYTNAYFEAAIQNKGFRDALLASKGKVLKHSMASGLTKDDTILTEAEFIDVLNLLRDSL