The potential of facultative predatory Actinomycetota spp. and prospects in agricultural sustainability

Abstract

Actinomycetota in the phylum of bacteria has been explored extensively as a source of antibiotics and secondary metabolites. In addition to acting as plant growth-promoting agents, they also possess the potential to control various plant pathogens; however, there are limited studies that report the facultative predatory ability of Actinomycetota spp. Furthermore, the mechanisms that underline predation are poorly understood. We assessed the diversity of strategies employed by predatory bacteria to attack and subsequently induce the cell lysing of their prey. We revisited the diversity and abundance of secondary metabolite molecules linked to the different predation strategies by bacteria species. We analyzed the pros and cons of the distinctive predation mechanisms and explored their potential for the development of new biocontrol agents. The facultative predatory behaviors diverge from group attack “wolfpack,” cell-to-cell proximity “epibiotic,” periplasmic penetration, and endobiotic invasion to degrade host-cellular content. The epibiotic represents the dominant facultative mode of predation, irrespective of the habitat origins. The wolfpack is the second-used approach among the Actinomycetota harboring predatory traits. The secondary molecules as chemical weapons engaged in the respective attacks were reviewed. We finally explored the use of predatory Actinomycetota as a new cost-effective and sustainable biocontrol agent against plant pathogens.

Role of Bacillus subtilis exopolymeric genes in modulating rhizosphere microbiome assembly

“…Interestingly, some of these groups, including Preussia [94,95], Humicola [96,97], and Exophiala [98,99], are known growth promoters in rice. On the other hand, the relative abundance of Actinomycetota, which is a phylum harboring well-known beneficial bacteria [99][100][101][102], decreased in plants inoculated with UD1022 eps−TasA− compared to that in plants inoculated with UD1022 (Additional file 1: Figure S4). This observation may imply the importance of the EPS and TasA genes in synergistic interactions among soil resident microbiome communities.…”

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus: A Boost for Hematological and Gut Health in Salmonella enteritidis-Infected Mice

“…Another method used by epibiotic predatory germs, such as Vampirococcus is by attaching to the outer surface of prey cells, hydrolyzing and consuming the host. Meanwhile, the predatory Bdellovibrio-and-likeorganisms (BALOs) infiltrate the periplasmic space of their prey germs (Kaljević et al 2021;Ibrahimi et al 2023).…”