Deoxyribonuclease CdiA

UniProtKB accession:  A0A0H3B0B8

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UniProtKB description:  Toxic component of a toxin-immunity protein module, which functions as a cellular contact-dependent growth inhibition (CDI) system. CDI modules allow bacteria to communicate with and inhibit the growth of closely related neighboring bacteria in a contact-dependent fashion. The C-terminal 123 residues (954-1077) has DNase activity in the presence of Zn(2+), converting supercoiled DNA into open-circular form. Toxic activity is neutralized by coexpression of the cognate immunity protein CdiI-YPIII, but not by non-cognate immunity proteins from other toxin-immunity modules. Expression of the DNase domain as a chimera allows bacteria to attack other non-immune bacteria which become filamentous and have lost DNA staining.