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  • Opinion
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Interbacterial predation as a strategy for DNA acquisition in naturally competent bacteria

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 15, pages 621–629 (2017)Cite this article

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An Erratum to this article was published on 24 July 2017

This article has been updated

Abstract

Natural competence enables bacteria to take up exogenous DNA. The evolutionary function of natural competence remains controversial, as imported DNA can act as a source of substrates or can be integrated into the genome. Exogenous homologous DNA can also be used for genome repair. In this Opinion article, we propose that predation of non-related neighbouring bacteria coupled with competence regulation might function as an active strategy for DNA acquisition. Competence-dependent kin-discriminated killing has been observed in the unrelated bacteria Vibrio cholerae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Importantly, both the regulatory networks and the mode of action of neighbour predation differ between these organisms, with V. cholerae using a type VI secretion system and S. pneumoniae secreting bacteriocins. We argue that the forced release of DNA from killed bacteria and the transfer of non-clonal genetic material have important roles in bacterial evolution.

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Figure 1: Linking the regulation of competence-induced DNA uptake and the production of killing factors in Vibrio cholerae and Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Figure 2: Diversity of effector–immunity gene pairs in different Vibrio cholerae strains.
Figure 3: Fratricide versus kin-discriminated killing.
Figure 4: T6SS-mediated and bacteriocin-mediated neighbour predation fosters horizontal gene transfer in Vibrio cholerae and Streptococcus pneumoniae, respectively.

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  • 14 July 2017

    The author affiliation has been written incorrectly and this is now corrected.

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Acknowledgements

The authors apologize to those researchers whose work was not cited in this Opinion article owing to space limitations and the primary focus on the link between competence induction and kin-discriminated neighbour predation. Work in the Veening laboratory is supported by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Young Investigator Program, a VIDI fellowship (grant 864.12.001) from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Earth and Life Sciences (NWO-ALW), and European Research Council Starting Grant 337399-PneumoCell. Work in the Blokesch laboratory is funded by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 31003A_162551 and NRP72 program grant 407240_167061) and the European Research Council (ERC; starting grant 309064-VIR4ENV).

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  1. Jan-Willem Veening

    Present address: Molecular Genetics Group, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, Centre for Synthetic Biology, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands. Present address: Department of Fundamental Microbiology, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, Global Health Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL,

    Jan-Willem Veening & Melanie Blokesch

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), Station 19, EPFL-SV-UPBLO, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland

    Jan-Willem Veening & Melanie Blokesch

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  1. Jan-Willem Veening
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Correspondence to Jan-Willem Veening or Melanie Blokesch.

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Veening, JW., Blokesch, M. Interbacterial predation as a strategy for DNA acquisition in naturally competent bacteria. Nat Rev Microbiol 15, 621–629 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.66

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