Navigating Environmental Transitions: the Role of Phenotypic Variation in Bacterial Responses

Spratt, Madison R; Lane, Keara

doi:10.1128/mbio.02212-22

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 145 publications

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“…In contrast, some of the most significantly downregulated genes included genes associated with stress response ( rpoS , osmY , elaB and katE ), and with starch and sucrose metabolism ( bcsA, treZ, treY, treF, otsA, amyA, glgX and glgC ). These results are significant given the established importance that the interplay between stress-response, metabolism and virulence have in the successful colonization of a host by a pathogen 50, 51 . Together, these results indicate that C. rodentium is capable of detecting changes in AHL levels in the environment and using them as regulatory signals to initiate targeted changes in gene expression involved in virulence, stress and metabolism.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Quorum Sensing Modulates Bacterial Virulence and Colonization Dynamics During an Enteric Infection

Peña-Díaz

Woodward

Creus-Cuadros

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Quorum Sensing (QS) is a form of cell-to-cell communication that enables bacteria to modify behaviour according to their population density. While QS has been proposed as a potential intervention against pathogen infection, QS-mediated communication within the mammalian digestive tract remains understudied. Using an LC-MS/MS approach, we discovered that Citrobacter rodentium, a natural murine pathogen used to model human infection by pathogenic Escherichia coli, utilizes the CroIR system to produce three QS-molecules. We then profiled their accumulation both in vitro and across different gastrointestinal sites over the course of infection. Importantly, we found that in the absence of QS capabilities the virulence of C. rodentium is enhanced. This highlights the role of QS as an effective mechanism to regulate virulence according to the pathogen's spatio-temporal context to optimize colonization and transmission success. These results also demonstrate that inhibiting QS may not always be an effective strategy for the control of virulence.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Quorum Sensing Modulates Bacterial Virulence and Colonization Dynamics During an Enteric Infection

Peña-Díaz

Woodward

Creus-Cuadros

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Thereafter, heterogeneous biofilm raised as cells specialize in motile or matrix-producing subpopulations; it would be favored if the benefit of quickly responding to drop-in nutrients outweighed the cost of having cheater-like nonproducers that reduced the ability to form a biofilm ( Hamilton, 1964 ; Smits et al, 2006 ; López et al, 2009c ; Joan et al, 2011 ; West and Cooper, 2016 ). Furthermore, the heterogeneous biofilm strategy provides the evolutionary context of sanctioning behavior ( Acar et al, 2008 ; López et al, 2009c ; West and Cooper, 2016 ; Spratt and Lane, 2022 ). Interestingly, the genomic island responsible for BAs synthesis in B. velezensis SQR9 acquired through HGT, not only acts as a weapon for antagonizing closely related competitors ( Wang et al, 2019 ), but also establishes a policing system for punishing cheater-like individuals within the biofilm community.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A toxin-mediated policing system in Bacillus optimizes division of labor via penalizing cheater-like nonproducers

Huang

Shao

et al. 2023

eLife

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Division of labor, where subpopulations perform complementary tasks simultaneously within an assembly, characterizes major evolutionary transitions of cooperation in certain cases. Currently, the mechanism and significance of mediating the interaction between different cell types during the division of labor, remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated molecular mechanism and ecological function of a policing system for optimizing the division of labor in Bacillus velezensis SQR9. During biofilm formation, cells differentiated into extracellular matrix (ECM)-producers and cheater-like nonproducers. ECM-producers were also active in the biosynthesis of genomic island-governed toxic bacillunoic acids (BAs) and self-resistance; while the nonproducers were sensitive to this antibiotic and could be partially eliminated. Spo0A was identified to be the co-regulator for triggering both ECM production and BAs synthesis/immunity. Besides its well-known regulation of ECM secretion, Spo0A activates acetyl-CoA carboxylase to produce malonyl-CoA, which is essential for BAs biosynthesis, thereby stimulating BAs production and self-immunity. Finally, the policing system not only excluded ECM-nonproducing cheater-like individuals but also improved the production of other public goods such as protease and siderophore, consequently, enhancing the population stability and ecological fitness under stress conditions and in the rhizosphere. This study provides insights into our understanding of the maintenance and evolution of microbial cooperation.

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“…Interestingly, phenotypic diversification is often hypothesized to promote bet-hedging for when pathogens encounter variable environments [63][64][65]. For example, enteric pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella experience drastically different environments while invading the gastrointestinal tract [66].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gre factors protect against phenotypic diversification and cheating inEscherichia colipopulations under toxic metabolite stress

Sivaloganathan

Wan

Brynildsen

2023

Preprint

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Nitric oxide (NO) is one of the toxic metabolites that bacteria can be exposed to within phagosomes. Gre factors, which are also known as transcript cleavage factors or transcription elongation factors, relieve back-tracked transcription elongation complexes by cleaving nascent RNAs, which allows transcription to resume after stalling. Here we discovered that loss of both Gre factors in E. coli, GreA and GreB, significantly compromised NO detoxification through a phenotypic diversification of the population. Under normal culturing conditions, both wild-type and ΔgreAΔgreB synthesized protein uniformly. However, treatment with NO led to bimodal protein expression in ΔgreAΔgreB, whereas wild-type remained unimodal. Interestingly, exposure to another toxic metabolite of phagosomes, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), produced similar results. We found that the diversification in ΔgreAΔgreB cultures required E. coli RNAP, occurred at the level of transcription, and could produce cheating where transcriptionally-deficient cells benefit from the detoxification activities of the transcriptionally-proficient subpopulation. Collectively, these results indicate that Gre factors bolster bacterial defenses by preventing phenotypic diversification and cheating in environments with fast-diffusing toxic metabolites.

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Navigating Environmental Transitions: the Role of Phenotypic Variation in Bacterial Responses

Cited by 22 publications

References 145 publications

Quorum Sensing Modulates Bacterial Virulence and Colonization Dynamics During an Enteric Infection

Quorum Sensing Modulates Bacterial Virulence and Colonization Dynamics During an Enteric Infection

A toxin-mediated policing system in Bacillus optimizes division of labor via penalizing cheater-like nonproducers

Gre factors protect against phenotypic diversification and cheating inEscherichia colipopulations under toxic metabolite stress

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