Bacillus licheniformis escapes from Myxococcus xanthus predation by deactivating myxovirescin A through enzymatic glucosylation
Chuandong WangXinlin LiuPeng ZhangYan WangLi ZXun LiRenqing WangZhaohui ShangJingen YanHaifeng HeJing WangWei HuYuezhong Li
22
Citation
68
Reference
10
Related Paper
Citation Trend
Abstract:
Summary Myxococcus xanthus kills susceptible bacteria using myxovirescin A (TA) during predation. However, whether prey cells in nature can escape M. xanthus by developing resistance to TA is unknown. We observed that many field‐isolated Bacillus licheniformis strains could survive encounters with M. xanthus , which was correlated to their TA resistance. A TA glycoside was identified in the broth of predation‐resistant B. licheniformis J32 co‐cultured with M. xanthus , and a glycosyltransferase gene ( yjiC ) was up‐regulated in J32 after the addition of TA. Hetero‐expressed YjiC‐modified TA to a TA glucoside (TA‐Gluc) by conjugating a glucose moiety to the C‐21 hydroxyl group, and the resulting compound was identical to the TA glycoside present in the co‐culture broth. TA‐Gluc exhibited diminished bactericidal activity due to its weaker binding with LspA, as suggested by in silico docking data. Heterologous expression of the yjiC gene conferred both TA and M. xanthus ‐predation resistance to the host Escherichia coli cells. Furthermore, under predatory pressure, B. licheniformis Y071 rapidly developed predation resistance by acquiring TA resistance through the overexpression of yjiC and lspA genes. These results suggest that M. xanthus predation resistance in B. licheniformis is due to the TA deactivation by glucosylation, which is induced in a predator‐mediated manner.Keywords:
Myxococcus xanthus
Bacillus licheniformis
Swarming (honey bee)
Cooperation among individuals is necessary for evolutionary transitions to higher levels of biological organization. In such transitions, groups of individuals at one level (such as single cells) cooperate to form selective units at a higher level (such as multicellular organisms). Though the evolution of cooperation is difficult to observe directly in higher eukaryotes, microorganisms do offer such an opportunity. Here we report the evolution of novel cooperative behaviour in experimental lineages of the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. Wild-type strains of M. xanthus exhibit socially dependent swarming across soft surfaces by a mechanism known as 'S-motility' that requires the presence of extracellular type IV pili. In lineages of M. xanthus unable to make pili, a new mechanistic basis for cooperative swarming evolved. Evolved swarming is mediated, at least in part, by enhanced production of an extracellular fibril matrix that binds cells-and their evolutionary interests-together. Though costly to individuals, fibril production greatly enhanced population expansion in groups of interconnected cells. These results show that fundamental transitions to primitive cooperation can readily occur in bacteria. PMID: 12955143
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Multicellular organism
Swarming motility
Cite
Citations (0)
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Multicellular organism
Swarming motility
Cite
Citations (176)
Abstract Myxococcus xanthus is a bacterium that lives on surfaces as a predatory biofilm called a swarm.As a growing swarm feeds on prey and expands, it displays dynamic multicellular patterns such as traveling waves called ripples and branching protrusions called flares. The rate at which a swarm expands across a surface, and the emergence of the coexisting patterns, are all controlled through coordinated cell movement. M. xanthus cells move using two motility systems known as Adventurous (A) and Social (S). Both are involved in swarm expansion and pattern formation. In this study, we describe a set of M. xanthus swarming genotype-to-phenotype associations that include both genetic and environmental perturbations. We identified new features of the swarming phenotype; recorded and measured swarm expansion using time-lapse microscopy; and compared the impact of mutation on different surfaces. These observations and analyses have increased our ability to discriminate between swarming phenotypes and provided context that allowed us to identify some phenotypes as improbable ‘outliers’ within the M. xanthus swarming phenome. Importance Myxococcus xanthus grows on surfaces as a predatory biofilm called a swarm. A feeding swarm expands by moving over and consuming prey bacteria. In the laboratory, a swarm is created by spotting cell suspension onto nutrient agar in lieu of prey. The cells quickly settle on the surface and the new swarm then expands radially. An assay that measures the expansion rate of a swarm of mutant cells is the first, and sometimes only, measurement used to decide whether a particular mutation impacts swarm motility. We have broadened the scope of this assay by increasing the accuracy of measurements and reintroducing prey, resulting in new identifiable and quantifiable features that can be used to improve genotype-to-phenotype associations.
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Swarming motility
Cite
Citations (0)
Ген а-амилазы из Bacillus licheniformis и его гомолог, не кодирующий сигнальную аминокислотную последовательность, были клонированы и экспрессированы в компетентных клетках Escherichia coli. Продуцируемые E. coli рекомбинантные белки располагались в цитоплазме клеток-продуцентов в виде нерастворимых, но ферментативно активных цитоплазматических агрегатов. Экспрессия при низкой концентрации индуктора (0,01 мМ изопропил P-D-тиогалактопиранозид вместо 0,5 мМ) и при пониженной температуре (18° вместо 37°) приводила к продукции значительных количеств растворимого рекомбинантного фермента, находящегося в растворимом состоянии и расположенного во внеклеточной среде. Рекомбинантный белок, несущий сигнальную последовательность, в отличие от своего гомолога, не содержащего этой аминокислотной последовательности, мог экспортироваться из клеток-продуцентов во внешнюю среду. При этом, активность а-амилазы в культуральной среде нарастала постепенно во времени с начала индукции экспрессии. Методом масс-спектрометрии (MALDI-TOF MS), а также путем определения N-концевой последовательности очищенной рекомбинантной а-амилазы было установлено, что сигнальная пептидаза E. coli расщепляет сигнальную последовательность между остатками Ala28 и Ala29 фермента-предшественника. Предполагается, что сигнальный пептид а-амилазы из B. licheniformis можно использовать для секреции различных рекомбинантных белков, которые экспрессируются и продуцируются с помощью E. coli.
Bacillus licheniformis
Bacillus (shape)
Escherichia
Cite
Citations (0)
Many bacteria can rapidly traverse surfaces from which they are extracting nutrient for growth. They generate flat, spreading colonies, called swarms because they resemble swarms of insects. We seek to understand how members of any dense swarm spread efficiently while being able to perceive and interfere minimally with the motion of others. To this end, we investigate swarms of the myxobacterium, Myxococcus xanthus. Individual M. xanthus cells are elongated; they always move in the direction of their long axis; and they are in constant motion, repeatedly touching each other. Remarkably, they regularly reverse their gliding directions. We have constructed a detailed cell- and behavior-based computational model of M. xanthus swarming that allows the organization of cells to be computed. By using the model, we are able to show that reversals of gliding direction are essential for swarming and that reversals increase the outflow of cells across the edge of the swarm. Cells at the swarm edge gain maximum exposure to nutrient and oxygen. We also find that the reversal period predicted to maximize the outflow of cells is the same (within the errors of measurement) as the period observed in experiments with normal M. xanthus cells. This coincidence suggests that the circuit regulating reversals evolved to its current sensitivity under selection for growth achieved by swarming. Finally, we observe that, with time, reversals increase the cell alignment, and generate clusters of parallel cells.
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Myxobacteria
Collective motion
Cite
Citations (145)
Abstract Coordinated group movement (swarming) is a key aspect of Myxococcus xanthus ' social behavior. Here we report observation of domain structures formed by multiple cells within large three‐dimensional swarming groups grown on amorphous glass substrates, using the atomic force microscope (AFM). Novel analyses revealed that ˜90% of the wild type swarms displayed some form of preferential cell alignment. In contrast, cells with mutations in the social and adventurous motility systems displayed a distinct lack of cell alignment. Video microscopy observations of domain features of in vivo swarming M. xanthus cells were also consistent with the AFM data. The results presented here reveal that unique domain formation within swarms of wild type cells is a biologically driven process requiring the social and adventurous motility systems and is not a statistical phenomenon or thermodynamic process arising from liquid crystal behavior. Cell Motil. Cytoskeleton 63, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Myxococcus xanthus
Cite
Citations (22)
ABSTRACT Myxococcus xanthus has been shown to utilize both directed (tactic) and undirected (kinetic) movements during different stages of its complex life cycle. We have used time-lapse video microscopic analysis to separate tactic and kinetic behaviors associated specifically with vegetatively swarming cells. Isolated individual cells separated by a thin agar barrier from mature swarms showed significant increases in gliding velocity compared to that of similar cells some distance from the swarm. This orthokinetic behavior was independent of the frequency of reversals of gliding direction (klinokinesis) but did require both the Frz signal transduction system and S-motility. We propose that M. xanthus uses Frz-dependent, auto-orthokinetic behavior to facilitate the dispersal of cells under conditions where both cell density and nutrient levels are high.
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Cite
Citations (15)
Myxococcus xanthus grows on surfaces as a predatory biofilm called a swarm. In nature, a feeding swarm expands by moving over and consuming prey bacteria.
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Swarming motility
Multicellular organism
Cite
Citations (2)
Modified prepenicillinase was accumulated in both Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis treated with globomycin. Although the inhibitions of processings of prepenicillinase and prolipoprotein by globomycin in E. coli are qualitatively similar, they differ in the degree of inhibition at given concentrations of globomycin. The processing of prepenicillinase proceeds much more rapidly in E. coli than in B. subtilis.
Bacillus licheniformis
Bacillus (shape)
Bacillaceae
Cite
Citations (20)
ABSTRACT We have cloned a gene of Myxococcus xanthus with similarities to the permease for glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) of other bacteria. Expression of the gene increased significantly during the first hours of starvation. Swarming of the wild-type strain was inhibited and aggregation was delayed by G3P. Conversely, a Δ glpT strain aggregated even on rich medium. These results indicate that G3P may function to regulate the timing of aggregation in M. xanthus .
Myxococcus xanthus
Swarming (honey bee)
Cite
Citations (8)