Zhang Shuaibing, Mukherji Ruchira, Chowdhury Somak, Reimer Lisa, Stallforth Pierre
Department of Paleobiotechnology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Hans Knöll Institute, Jena 07745, Germany.
Department of Paleobiotechnology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Hans Knöll Institute, Jena 07745, Germany
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Feb 9;118(6). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2013759118.
Bacteria are inherently social organisms whose actions should ideally be studied within an interactive ecological context. We show that the exchange and modification of natural products enables two unrelated bacteria to defend themselves against a common predator. Amoebal predation is a major cause of death in soil bacteria and thus it exerts a strong selective pressure to evolve defensive strategies. A systematic analysis of binary combinations of coisolated bacteria revealed strains that were individually susceptible to predation but together killed their predator. This cooperative defense relies on a species producing syringafactin, a lipopeptide, which induces the production of peptidases in a strain. These peptidases then degrade the innocuous syringafactin into compounds, which kill the predator. A combination of bioprospecting, coculture experiments, genome modification, and transcriptomics unravel this novel natural product-based defense strategy.
细菌本质上是社会性生物，理想情况下，其行为应在互动的生态环境中进行研究。我们发现，天然产物的交换和修饰能使两种不相关的细菌抵御共同的捕食者。变形虫捕食是土壤细菌死亡的主要原因，因此它施加了强大的选择压力，促使细菌进化出防御策略。对共分离细菌的二元组合进行系统分析，发现了一些单独易受捕食但共同杀死捕食者的菌株。这种协同防御依赖于一个物种产生丁香假单胞菌素（一种脂肽），它能诱导另一个菌株产生肽酶。然后这些肽酶将无害的丁香假单胞菌素降解为能杀死捕食者的化合物。生物勘探、共培养实验、基因组修饰和转录组学相结合，揭示了这种基于天然产物的新型防御策略。
