Phosphate limitation induces the intergeneric inhibition ofPseudomonas aeruginosabySerratia marcescensisolated from paper machines

Abstract

Phosphate is an essential nutrient for heterotrophic bacteria, affecting bacterioplankton in aquatic ecosystems and bacteria in biofilms. However, the influence of phosphate limitation on bacterial competition and biofilm development in multispecies populations has received limited attention in existing studies. To address this issue, we isolated 13 adhesive bacteria from paper machine aggregates. Intergeneric inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa WW5 by Serratia marcescens WW4 was identified under phosphate-limited conditions, but not in Luria–Bertani medium or M9 minimal medium. The viable numbers of the pure S. marcescens WW4 culture decreased over 3 days in the phosphate-limited medium; however, the mortality of S. marcescens WW4 was significantly reduced when it was co-cultured with P. aeruginosa WW5, which appeared to sustain the S. marcescens WW4 biofilm. In contrast, viable P. aeruginosa WW5 cells immediately declined in the phosphate-limited co-culture. To identify the genetic/inhibitory element(s) involved in this process, we inserted a mini-Tn5 mutant of S. marcescens WW4 that lacked inhibitory effect. The results showed that an endonuclease bacteriocin was involved in this intergeneric inhibition by S. marcescens WW4 under phosphate limitation. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of nutrient limitation in bacterial interactions and provides a strong candidate gene for future functional characterisation.

Complete Genome Sequence of Serratia marcescens WW4

“…The bacterial strain Serratia marcescens WW4 was isolated from a paper machine in Taiwan (1). Phenotypic characterization of this bacterium revealed that it is capable of forming biofilms individually or with Pseudomonas aeruginosa .…”

“…Phenotypic characterization of this bacterium revealed that it is capable of forming biofilms individually or with Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Intriguingly, while the two bacteria may coexist in LB medium or M9 minimal medium, phosphate limitation can induce intergeneric inhibition of P. aeruginosa by S. marcescens WW4 (1). …”

“…Our preliminary examination of the gene content identified one complete pig gene cluster for the biosynthesis of prodigiosin (i.e., a red pigment with antibiotic activities), which shares the same gene organization with S. marcescens ATCC 274 (14). Additionally, several putative bacteriocin genes exist in the S. marcescens WW4 genome, which are likely to be responsible for the intergeneric inhibition phenotype of this bacterium (1). …”

A Novel 6′-N-Aminoglycoside Acetyltransferase, AAC(6′)-Ial, from a Clinical Isolate ofSerratia marcescens

“…S. marcescens WW4 was originally isolated from environmental water samples in a paper factory in Taiwan. 6 Escherichia coli DH5a (Takara Bio, Shiga, Japan) and E. coli BL21-CodonPlus (DE3)-RIP (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA) were used as hosts for recombinant plasmids and proteins, respectively. Plasmids pSTV28 (Takara) and pQE2 (Qiagen, Tokyo, Japan) were used for cloning of aac(6¢)s and purification of recombinant AAC(6¢)s, respectively, as described previously.…”

Inhibition of polyamine biosynthesis for toxicity control in Serratia marcescens strain WW4 by targeting ornithine decarboxylase: a structure-based virtual screening study

“…Serratia marscens strain WW4 are antagonists of Pseudomonas aeruginosa WW5 showing biofilm formation and significantly compromised mortality rate when co-cultured under phosphate-limited conditions with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Chung et al, 2013;De Queiroz and De Melo, 2006;Kuo et al, 2013). Serratia species are gramnegative bacteria, categorised in the large family of Enterobacteriaceae (Benevides-Matos and Biville, 2010; Moradigaravand et al, 2016;Zaheer et al, 2016).…”