Eric JelliJan 11

Nice work by Sanika Vaidya (and collegues)
done during our PhDs together at @maxplanckgesellschaft and @unibasel

Peptidoglycan triggers #biofilm formation across bacterial species.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01886-5

#openaccess #mpg #mpitm #phage #V_cholerae #bacteria #nature #microbiology #science #research

Bacteria use exogenous peptidoglycan as a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology

Peptidoglycan released by neighbouring kin or non-kin cell lysis induces physiological changes that protect from a range of stresses, including phage predation.

Nature
Show threadEric JelliJan 11
During her research at the #mpitm, Sanika found that #V_cholerae forms biofilms directly after treated with #phages.
Show threadEric JelliJan 11
While biofilm formation of bacterial species as a stress response is not really something unheard of, the reconstruction of the exact signal pathway came with a surprise: It is not necessary that the bacterial cells are exposed to phages at all but rather sufficient to expose them to the left-overs of a previous phage attack.
Show threadEric JelliJan 11
After exploring different hypotheses, a control experiment revealed that not only #lysate of #V_cholerae communities but also from #E_coli, #P_aeruginosa, and even #Gram-negative bacteria such as #B_subtilis can trigger the response.
Show threadEric Jelli
Still, the signal was missing ... and the signal hunt was on ... and escalated quickly. While some experiments with differently threated lysates showed that biofilm-inducing molecules had a wide range of sizes, but they have to be larger than 3 kDa. Others pointed into the direction of exogenously cell wall fragments. Indeed, the exposure of #V_cholerae to purified #peptidoglycan triggered the biofilm formation!
Jan 11 at 9:32amWeb
Show threadEric JelliJan 11

As already indicated by previous experiments, not only #V_cholerae reacts to purified #peptidoglycan but this behaviour can also be observed in different biofilm-forming species.

So Sanika has "demonstrated that exogenous PG released by cellular lysis is a general danger signal to which several bacterial species respond by forming biofilms. The resulting biofilms serves as a refuge that protects against phage predation or other biotic and abiotic stresses that can lyse bacterial cells."