TY - JOUR AU - Randall, Samantha E. AU - Martini, Maria Carla AU - Zhou, Ying AU - Joubran, Samantha R. AU - Shell, Scarlet S. PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/29 TI - MamA essentiality in Mycobacterium smegmatis is explained by the presence of an apparent cognate restriction endonuclease JO - BMC Research Notes SP - 462 VL - 13 IS - 1 AB - Restriction-Modification (R-M) systems are ubiquitous in bacteria and were considered for years as rudimentary immune systems that protect bacterial cells from foreign DNA. Currently, these R-M systems are recognized as important players in global gene expression and other cellular processes such us virulence and evolution of genomes. Here, we report the role of the unique DNA methyltransferase in Mycobacterium smegmatis, which shows a moderate degree of sequence similarity to MamA, a previously characterized methyltransferase that affects gene expression in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is important for survival under hypoxic conditions. SN - 1756-0500 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-020-05302-z DO - 10.1186/s13104-020-05302-z ID - Randall2020 ER -