Publication Date:
2012-07-07
Description:
Microbial populations stochastically generate variants with strikingly different properties, such as virulence or avirulence and antibiotic tolerance or sensitivity. Photorhabdus luminescens bacteria have a variable life history in which they alternate between pathogens to a wide variety of insects and mutualists to their specific host nematodes. Here, we show that the P. luminescens pathogenic variant (P form) switches to a smaller-cell variant (M form) to initiate mutualism in host nematode intestines. A stochastic promoter inversion causes the switch between the two distinct forms. M-form cells are much smaller (one-seventh the volume), slower growing, and less bioluminescent than P-form cells; they are also avirulent and produce fewer secondary metabolites. Observations of form switching by individual cells in nematodes revealed that the M form persisted in maternal nematode intestines, were the first cells to colonize infective juvenile (IJ) offspring, and then switched to P form in the IJ intestine, which armed these nematodes for the next cycle of insect infection.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006969/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006969/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Somvanshi, Vishal S -- Sloup, Rudolph E -- Crawford, Jason M -- Martin, Alexander R -- Heidt, Anthony J -- Kim, Kwi-suk -- Clardy, Jon -- Ciche, Todd A -- 1K99 GM097096-01/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- K99 GM097096/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R00 GM097096/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM086258/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2012 Jul 6;337(6090):88-93. doi: 10.1126/science.1216641.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22767929" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Fimbriae Proteins/genetics
;
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
;
Genome, Bacterial
;
Intestines/microbiology
;
Moths/*microbiology
;
Mutation
;
Phenotype
;
Photorhabdus/cytology/*genetics/growth & development/*pathogenicity
;
*Promoter Regions, Genetic
;
Rhabditoidea/*microbiology
;
*Sequence Inversion
;
*Symbiosis
;
Virulence/genetics
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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