FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2020) 96 (8 - fiaa073)

Rebecca M. Kochanowsky, Christine Bradshaw, Isabel Forlastro and S. Patricia Stock (2020)
Xenorhabdus bovienii strain jolietti uses a type 6 secretion system to kill closely related Xenorhabdus strains
FEMS Microbiology Ecology 96 (8 - fiaa073)
Abstract: Xenorhabdus bovienii strain jolietti (XBJ) is a Gram-negative bacterium that interacts with several organisms as a part of its life cycle. It is a beneficial symbiont of nematodes, a potent pathogen of a wide range of soil-dwelling insects and also has the ability to kill soil- and insect-associated microbes. Entomopathogenic Steinernema nematodes vector XBJ into insects, releasing the bacteria into the insect body cavity. There, XBJ produce a variety of insecticidal toxins and antimicrobials. XBJ's genome also encodes two separate Type Six Secretion Systems (T6SSs), structures that allow bacteria to inject specific proteins directly into other cells, but their roles in the XBJ life cycle are mostly unknown. To probe the function of these T6SSs, we generated mutant strains lacking the key structural protein Hcp from each T6SS and assessed phenotypes related to different parts of XBJ's life cycle. Here we demonstrate that one of the T6SSs is more highly expressed in in vitro growth conditions and has antibacterial activity against other Xenorhabdus strains, and that the two T6SSs have a redundant role in biofilm formation.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): S. Patricia Stock

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Steinernema feltiae/Xenorhabdus bovienii (entomopathogen)