The 3D architecture of a bacterial swarm has implications for antibiotic tolerance

Partridge, Jonathan D.; Ariel, Gil; Schvartz, Orly; Harshey, Rasika M.; Be’er, Avraham

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-34192-2

Cited by 29 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Cell death incurred during swarming, however, appeared to provide a protective benefit, leading to speculation that a dead-cell layer at the bottom of the swarm might shield live cells swarming on top by acting as a physical barrier against antibiotic penetration 12 . In a study examining the 3D architecture of a swarm in the presence of different antibiotics, dead cells were not always found at the bottom, ruling out a barrier role 20 . Instead, live cells were seen to migrate away from the antibiotic source, leading to a suggestion that cell death emanating around this source releases an avoidance "signal" that contributes to the resistance 20 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a study examining the 3D architecture of a swarm in the presence of different antibiotics, dead cells were not always found at the bottom, ruling out a barrier role 20 . Instead, live cells were seen to migrate away from the antibiotic source, leading to a suggestion that cell death emanating around this source releases an avoidance "signal" that contributes to the resistance 20 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dead cells release a ‘necrosignal’ that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Swarming is a form of collective bacterial motion enabled by flagella on the surface of semisolid media. Swarming populations exhibit non-genetic or adaptive resistance to antibiotics, despite sustaining considerable cell death. Here, we show that antibiotic-induced death of a sub-population benefits the swarm by enhancing adaptive resistance in the surviving cells. Killed cells release a resistance-enhancing factor that we identify as AcrA, a periplasmic component of RND efflux pumps. The released AcrA interacts on the surface of live cells with an outer membrane component of the efflux pump, TolC, stimulating drug efflux and inducing expression of other efflux pumps. This phenomenon, which we call 'necrosignaling', exists in other Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and displays species-specificity. Given that adaptive resistance is a known incubator for evolving genetic resistance, our findings might be clinically relevant to the rise of multidrug resistance.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dead cells release a ‘necrosignal’ that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When Bs senses that it is on a solid surface, it will differentiate into a swarmer cell that has a significant increase in the number of flagella and produces hydrophobic surfactants, such as surfactin, to efficiently spread across the surface 24–26 . Both swimming and swarming cell types are chemotactic 27,28 . In our experiments, we utilized an undomesticated strain of Bs (NCIB3610) that can swarm, unlike common laboratory strains that lack the ability to differentiate into swarmer cells and fail to produce surfactin to undergo swarming motility 24,26,29 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial piggy-back: howStreptomycesspores are transported by motile soil bacteria

Muok

Claessen

Briegel

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Streptomycetes are sessile, soil-dwelling bacteria that produce diverse metabolites that impact plant health and the behavior of microbial communities. Emerging studies have demonstrated that Streptomyces spores are distributed through a variety of mechanisms, but it remains unclear how spores are transported to their preferred micro-environments, such as plant roots. Here, we show that Streptomyces spores are capable of utilizing the motility machinery of other soil bacteria and are transported on the centimeter scale. Motility assays and microscopy studies reveal that Streptomyces spores are transported to plant tissues by interacting directly with the flagella of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Genetics experiments demonstrate that this form of motility, called piggy-backing, is facilitated by conserved structural proteins present on the surface of Streptomyces spores. These results demonstrate that non-motile bacteria are capable of utilizing the motility machinery of other microbes to complete necessary stages of their lifecycle, and that this mode of transport may be ubiquitous in nature.

show abstract

“…Thus, the framework developed here provides principles to both predict and direct chemotactic migration. densities in bulk liquid (38)(39)(40)(41)(42). Developing a more detailed treatment of these dynamics in porous media will be a useful direction for future work.…”

Section: Continuum Model Describes Long-range Sensing By Bacterial Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemotactic Migration of Bacteria in Porous Media

Bhattacharjee

Amchin

Ott

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chemotactic migration of bacteria—their ability to direct multicellular motion along chemical gradients—is central to processes in agriculture, the environment, and medicine. However, studies are typically performed in bulk liquid, despite the fact that most bacteria inhabit heterogeneous porous media such as soils, sediments, and biological gels. Here, we directly visualize the migration of E. coli populations in 3D porous media. We find that pore-scale confinement is a strong regulator of chemotactic migration. Strikingly, cells use a different primary mechanism to direct their motion in confinement than in bulk liquid. Further, confinement markedly alters the dynamics and morphology of the migrating population—features that can be described by a continuum model, but only when standard motility parameters are substantially altered from their bulk liquid values. Our work thus provides a framework to predict and control the migration of bacteria, and active matter in general, in heterogeneous environments.

show abstract

The 3D architecture of a bacterial swarm has implications for antibiotic tolerance

Cited by 29 publications

References 49 publications

Dead cells release a ‘necrosignal’ that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms

Dead cells release a ‘necrosignal’ that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms

Microbial piggy-back: howStreptomycesspores are transported by motile soil bacteria

Chemotactic Migration of Bacteria in Porous Media

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About