Bacterial predation: 75 years and counting!

Abstract

SummaryThe first documented study on bacterial predation was carried out using myxobacteria three quarters of a century ago. Since then, many predatory strains, diverse hunting strategies, environmental consequences and potential applications have been reported by groups all over the world. Now we know that predatory bacteria are distributed in a wide variety of environments and that interactions between predatory and non-predatory populations seem to be the most important factor in bacterial selection and mortality in some ecosystems. Bacterial predation has now been proposed as an evolutionary driving force. The structure and diversity of the predatory bacterial community is beginning to be recognized as an important factor in biodiversity due to its potential role in controlling and modelling bacterial populations in the environment. In this paper, we review the current understanding of bacterial predation, going over the strategies used by the main predatory bacteria to kill their prey. We have also reviewed and integrated the accumulated advances of the last 75 years with the interesting new insights that are provided by the analyses of genomes, predatomes, predatosomes and other comparative genomics studies, focusing on potential applications that derive from all of these areas of study.

Rebuilding the Gut Microbiota Ecosystem

“…Predatory bacteria are in general smaller than their prey, which enables the predator to penetrate inside the prey, kill it from the inside, and replicate. It is remarkable that among predatory bacteria, distinct predatory behaviors have evolved; among these, the commonly indicated epibiotic predation is a strategy that does not require intracellular replication [181,182]. …”

Identification of Functions Affecting Predator-Prey Interactions between Myxococcus xanthus and Bacillus subtilis

“…Microbial predators can range from nematodes to highly specialized endobiotic bacteria, such as Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (3). Another ubiquitous microbial predator is Myxococcus xanthus, which secrets lytic enzymes and specialized metabolites and hunts in groups and consumes prey (4)(5)(6). M. xanthus is able to consume a diverse repertoire of microbes ranging from phage to bacterial plant pathogens and clinical isolates, and it uses the resulting nutrients to sustain growth (7)(8)(9).…”

Bacillus licheniformis escapes from Myxococcus xanthus predation by deactivating myxovirescin A through enzymatic glucosylation

“…M. xanthus and B. licheniformis are ubiquitous soil bacteria that may encounter and coexist in the same natural habitat, and the high positive rate (~52.6%) of predation resistance we observed among 19 field isolates of B. licheniformis supports the idea that bacterial predation may be a selective pressure in ecosystems (Leisner et al ., ). While many investigations have been conducted on bacterial defence against nematodes and protozoa, our understanding of how bacterial prey resists the predatory bacteria is still limited (Pérez et al ., ). The most well‐studied gram‐positive prey for M. xanthus is B. subtilis , which is phylogenetically close to B. licheniformis .…”