TY - JOUR
T1 - Co-ordinated bacteriocin production and competence development
T2 - A possible mechanism for taking up DNA from neighbouring species
AU - Kreth, Jens
AU - Merritt, Justin
AU - Shi, Wenyuan
AU - Qi, Fengxia
N1 - Funding Information:
All authors have no reported conflicts of interest. This work was supported by research grants from (1) Key Technologies Research and Development Program for Infectious Diseases of China , 2017ZX10201302-004 ; (2) National Natural Science Foundation of China , 81801975 .
PY - 2005/7
Y1 - 2005/7
N2 - It is important to ensure DNA availability when bacterial cells develop competence. Previous studies in Streptococcus pneumoniae demonstrated that the competence-stimulating peptide (CSP) induced autolysin production and cell lysis of its own non-competent cells, suggesting a possible active mechanism to secure a homologous DNA pool for uptake and recombination. In this study, we found that in Streptococcus mutans CSP induced co-ordinated expression of competence and mutacin production genes. This mutacin (mutacin IV) is a non-lantibiotic bacteriocin which kills closely related Streptococcal species such as S. gordonii. In mixed cultures of S. mutans and S. gordonii harbouring a shuttle plasmid, plasmid DNA transfer from S. gordonii to S. mutans was observed in a CSP and mutacin IV-dependent manner. Further analysis demonstrated an increased DNA release from S. gordonii upon addition of the partially purified mutacin IV extract. On the basis of these findings, we propose that Streptococcus mutans, which resides in a multispecies oral biofilm, may utilize the competence-induced bacteriocin production to acquire transforming DNA from other species living in the same ecological niche. This hypothesis is also consistent with a well-known phenomenon that a large genomic diversity exists among different S. mutans strains. This diversity may have resulted from extensive horizontal gene transfer.
AB - It is important to ensure DNA availability when bacterial cells develop competence. Previous studies in Streptococcus pneumoniae demonstrated that the competence-stimulating peptide (CSP) induced autolysin production and cell lysis of its own non-competent cells, suggesting a possible active mechanism to secure a homologous DNA pool for uptake and recombination. In this study, we found that in Streptococcus mutans CSP induced co-ordinated expression of competence and mutacin production genes. This mutacin (mutacin IV) is a non-lantibiotic bacteriocin which kills closely related Streptococcal species such as S. gordonii. In mixed cultures of S. mutans and S. gordonii harbouring a shuttle plasmid, plasmid DNA transfer from S. gordonii to S. mutans was observed in a CSP and mutacin IV-dependent manner. Further analysis demonstrated an increased DNA release from S. gordonii upon addition of the partially purified mutacin IV extract. On the basis of these findings, we propose that Streptococcus mutans, which resides in a multispecies oral biofilm, may utilize the competence-induced bacteriocin production to acquire transforming DNA from other species living in the same ecological niche. This hypothesis is also consistent with a well-known phenomenon that a large genomic diversity exists among different S. mutans strains. This diversity may have resulted from extensive horizontal gene transfer.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=22144435935&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=22144435935&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2005.04695.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2005.04695.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 15978073
AN - SCOPUS:22144435935
SN - 0950-382X
VL - 57
SP - 392
EP - 404
JO - Molecular Microbiology
JF - Molecular Microbiology
IS - 2
ER -