The cost and benefit of quorum sensing-controlled bacteriocin production in Lactobacillus plantarum
Date
07/01/2020Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Bacteria eliminate competitors via 'chemical warfare' with bacteriocins. Some species appear to adjust bacteriocin production conditionally in response to the social environment. We tested whether variation in the cost and benefit of producing bacteriocins could explain such conditional behaviour, in the bacteria Lactobacillus plantarum. We found that: (a) bacterial bacteriocin production could be upregulated by either the addition of a synthetic autoinducer peptide (PLNC8IF; signalling molecule), or by a plasmid which constitutively encodes for the production of this peptide; (b) bacteriocin production is costly, leading to reduced growth when grown in poor and, to a lesser extent, in rich media; (c) bacteriocin production provides a fitness advantage, when grown in competition with sensitive strains; and (d) the fitness benefits provided by bacteriocin production are greater at higher cell densities. These results show how the costs and benefits of upregulating bacteriocin production can depend upon abiotic and biotic conditions.
Citation
Maldonado-Barragan , A & West , S A 2020 , ' The cost and benefit of quorum sensing-controlled bacteriocin production in Lactobacillus plantarum ' , Journal of Evolutionary Biology , vol. 33 , no. 1 , pp. 101-111 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13551
Publication
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1010-061XType
Journal article
Description
This study was funded by the Andalucía Talent Hub Program launched by the Andalusian Knowledge Agency and co-funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (COFUND—grant agreement no. 291780) and the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment of the Junta de Andalucía.Collections
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