Bacterial contact-dependent growth inhibition

• Autores: C. Zachary, David A. Low, Christopher S. Hayes
• Localización: Trends in microbiology, ISSN 0966-842X, Vol. 21, Nº. 5, 2013, págs. 230-237
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Bacteria cooperate to form multicellular communities and compete against one another for environmental resources. Here, we review recent advances in the understanding of bacterial competition mediated by contact-dependent growth inhibition (CDI) systems. Different CDI+ bacteria deploy a variety of toxins to inhibit neighboring cells and protect themselves from autoinhibition by producing specific immunity proteins. The genes encoding CDI toxin�immunity protein pairs appear to be exchanged between cdi loci and are often associated with other toxin-delivery systems in diverse bacterial species. CDI also appears to facilitate cooperative behavior between kin, suggesting that these systems may have other roles beyond competition.