Natural Products from Social Amoebae

Barnett, Robert; Stallforth, Pierre

doi:10.1002/chem.201703694

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 71 publications

(151 reference statements)

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“…However, finding the exact chemoattractants is going to require additional work. Metabolites from amoebae are produced in extremely low quantities, which makes it virtually impossible to do a full structure elucidation via NMR [63]. Due to these difficulties, it is likely that natural products from the social amoebae have to be discovered through heterologous expression of the respective gene clusters [63].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Burkholderia bacteria use chemotaxis to find social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum hosts

et al. 2018

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A key question in cooperation is how to find the right partners and maintain cooperative relationships. This is especially challenging for horizontally transferred bacterial symbionts where relationships must be repeatedly established anew. In the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum farming symbiosis, two species of inedible Burkholderia bacteria (Burkholderia agricolaris and Burkholderia hayleyella) initiate stable associations with naive D. discoideum hosts and cause carriage of additional bacterial species. However, it is not clear how the association between D. discoideum and its carried Burkholderia is formed and maintained. Here, we look at precisely how Burkholderia finds its hosts. We found that both species of Burkholderia clones isolated from D. discoideum, but not other tested Burkholderia species, are attracted to D. discoideum supernatant, showing that the association is not simply the result of haphazard engulfment by the amoebas. The chemotactic responses are affected by both partners. We find evidence that B. hayleyella prefers D. discoideum clones that currently or previously carried Burkholderia, while B. agricolaris does not show this preference. However, we find no evidence of Burkholderia preference for their own host clone or for other hosts of their own species. We further investigate the chemical differences of D. discoideum supernatants that might explain the patterns shown above using a mass spectrometry based metabolomics approach. These results show that these bacterial symbionts are able to preferentially find and to some extent choose their unicellular partners. In addition, this study also suggests that bacteria can actively search for and target phagocytic cells, which may help us better understand how bacteria interact with immune systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Burkholderia bacteria use chemotaxis to find social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum hosts

et al. 2018

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“…In analogy, protoillud-7-ene, the product of DpTPS6 and its orthologs, may play a conserved, critical role, such as in regulating multicellular development, while the products of other TPS genes may have group- or species-adaptive functions, such as in chemotaxis 23 , defense 24 , or attracting beneficial organisms 25 . Such functions have been proposed for terpenoids as well as other types of secondary metabolites made by dictyostelid social amoebae 26 . Knowledge of the catalytic activities of individual TPSs and their contribution to the biosynthesis of volatile terpenoids during multicellular development in D .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and Functional Evolution of Terpene Synthases in Dictyostelid Social Amoebae

Chen

Köllner

Shaulsky

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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Dictyostelids, or social amoebae, have a unique life style in forming multicellular fruiting bodies from unicellular amoeboids upon starvation. Recently, dictyostelids were found to contain terpene synthase (TPS) genes, a gene type of secondary metabolism previously known to occur only in plants, fungi and bacteria. Here we report an evolutionary functional study of dictyostelid TPS genes. The number of TPS genes in six species of dictyostelids examined ranges from 1 to 19; and the model species Dictyostelium purpureum contains 12 genes. Using in vitro enzyme assays, the 12 TPS genes from D. purpureum were shown to encode functional enzymes with distinct product profiles. The expression of the 12 TPS genes in D. purpureum is developmentally regulated. During multicellular development, D. purpureum releases a mixture of volatile terpenes dominated by sesquiterpenes that are the in vitro products of a subset of the 12 TPS genes. The quality and quantity of the terpenes released from D. purpureum, however, bear little resemblance to those of D. discoideum, a closely related dictyostelid. Despite these variations, the conserved clade of dictyostelid TPSs, which have an evolutionary distance of more than 600 million years, has the same biochemical function, catalyzing the formation of a sesquiterpene protoillud-7-ene. Taken together, our results indicate that the dynamic evolution of dictyostelid TPS genes includes both purifying selection of an orthologous group and species-specific expansion with functional divergence. Consequently, the terpenes produced by these TPSs most likely have conserved as well as species-adaptive biological functions as chemical languages in dictyostelids.

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“…Among them, four bicyclic pyrrolizidines mainly contribute to the amoebicidala ctivity with an IC 50 of 3-41 mm (pyreudione Ci st he most active compound). [46] Among them, some molecules may be involved in defensem echanisms. These resultsa lso suggested that unknown small molecule(s) produced by amoeba can activate the defense mechanism of Pseudomonas.…”

Section: Secretion Of Metabolites For Preventing Predationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As am odel organism, D. discoideum has ar ich geneticp otentialf or SMs biosynthesis (for example, its genome harbors 45 and 11 putative PKS and terpene synthase genes, respectively [45] ), and structurally diverse compounds are gradually isolated from this species. [46] Among them, some molecules may be involved in defensem echanisms. For instance,C hen et al pointedo ut that volatile terpenes secreted by D. discoideum might be involved in repelling nematodes.…”

Section: Secretion Of Metabolites For Preventing Predationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cryptic Chemical Communication: Secondary Metabolic Responses Revealed by Microbial Co‐culture

Liu

Kakeya

2020

Chemistry An Asian Journal

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Microbial secondary metabolites (SMs) have long been viewed as as ignificants ource of novel pharmaceutical and agrochemical molecules. With the increasing availability of genomic data, numerous biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) have been discovered. Despite the presence of tens of thousands of BGCs that can theoretically produce extremely diverse SMs, many gene clusters remain in as ilent state under axenic culture conditions. Co-culture is ap romising research approach as it stimulates the expression of cryptic BGCs to produce novel metabolites and also mimics naturali nterspeciesi nteractions in al aboratory environment. In recenty ears, the roles of SMs in microbial communication have caught the attention of researchers and our understanding of microbes and their productiono fr emarkable SMs has improved. SMs may be extensively involved in av ariety of communication eventsa mong microorganisms. We herein summarize certainr epresentative findings in the field of chemical communication involving SMs in co-culture systems.

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Natural Products from Social Amoebae

Cited by 15 publications

References 71 publications

Burkholderia bacteria use chemotaxis to find social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum hosts

Burkholderia bacteria use chemotaxis to find social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum hosts

Diversity and Functional Evolution of Terpene Synthases in Dictyostelid Social Amoebae

Cryptic Chemical Communication: Secondary Metabolic Responses Revealed by Microbial Co‐culture

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