Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities
In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependent antagonism. Using single-cell live imaging and isotopic markers, we found that during starvation, the type VI secretion system (T6SS) lysed neighboring cells and thus provided nutrients from lysing cells for growth. Genomic adaptations in antagonists, characterized by a reduced metabolic gene repertoire, and the previously unexplored distribution of the T6SS across bacterial taxa in natural environments suggest that bacterial antagonism may contribute to nutrient transfer within microbial communities in many ecosystems.
Authors
- Glen G D’Souza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9123-101X)
- Olga T. Schubert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2613-0714)
- Roman Stocker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3199-0508)
- Cara Magnabosco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6871-7188)
- Marek Basler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5414-2088)
- Martin Ackermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0087-4819)
- Julia Schwartzman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4563-4835)
- Astrid KM Stubbusch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4767-2712)
- Lucas Paoli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0771-8309)
- Kang Soo Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5977-4770)
- François J. Peaudecerf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0295-4556)
Institutions
- University of Southern California (US)
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Basel (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Institut de Physique de Rennes (FR)
- Geological Institute (RU)
- Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Université de Rennes (FR)
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-06-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr8286
- Citations
- 20
- Primary Topic
- Vibrio bacteria research studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 35.96