Prey killing without invasion by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus defective for a MIDAS-family adhesin

Tyson, Jess; Radford, Paul; Lambert, Carey; Till, Rob; Huwiler, Simona G.; Lovering, Andrew L.; Sockett, R. Elizabeth

Abstract

The bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a predator of other Gram-negative bacteria. The predator invades the prey’s periplasm and modifies the prey’s cell wall, forming a rounded killed prey, or bdelloplast, containing a live B. bacteriovorus. Redundancy in adhesive processes makes invasive mutants rare. Here, we identify a MIDAS adhesin family protein, Bd0875, that is expressed at the predator-prey invasive junction and is important for successful invasion of prey. A mutant strain lacking bd0875 is still able to form round, dead bdelloplasts; however, 10% of the bdelloplasts do not contain B. bacteriovorus, indicative of an invasion defect. Bd0875 activity requires the conserved MIDAS motif, which is linked to catch-and-release activity of MIDAS proteins in other organisms. A proteomic analysis shows that the uninvaded bdelloplasts contain B. bacteriovorus proteins, which are likely secreted into the prey by the Δbd0875 predator during an abortive invasion period. Thus, secretion of proteins into the prey seems to be sufficient for prey killing, even in the absence of a live predator inside the prey periplasm.

Citation

Tyson, J., Radford, P., Lambert, C., Till, R., Huwiler, S. G., Lovering, A. L., & Sockett, R. E. (2024). Prey killing without invasion by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus defective for a MIDAS-family adhesin. Nature Communications, 15(1), Article 3078. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47412-3

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 27, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 9, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 11, 2024
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 3078
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47412-3
• Keywords: Antibiotics; Bacteriology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/33562481
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47412-3