Journal
JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY
Volume 203, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1128/JB.00478-20
Keywords
peptidoglycan; antibiotic; antimicrobial peptide; bacteriocin; effector; interbacterial competition; bacterial warfare; microbial ecology
Categories
Funding
- Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2017/02178-2]
- FAPESP [2019/27644-1, 2018/25316-4, 2018/04553-8]
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Bacteria live in dense polymicrobial communities and compete for scarce resources, employing diverse mechanisms to harm, inhibit, and kill their competitors. These mechanisms include attacking the peptidoglycan of rival bacteria, which is a major component of the cell wall and provides a target for antibacterial molecules such as antibiotics, bacteriocins, and contact-dependent effectors.
Bacteria commonly live in dense polymicrobial communities and compete for scarce resources. Consequently, they employ a diverse array of mechanisms to harm, inhibit, and kill their competitors. The cell wall is essential for bacterial survival by providing mechanical strength to resist osmotic stress. Because peptidoglycan is the major component of the cell wall and its synthesis is a complex multistep pathway that requires the coordinate action of several enzymes, it provides a target for rival bacteria, which have developed a large arsenal of antibacterial molecules to attack the peptidoglycan of competitors. These molecules include antibiotics, bacteriocins, and contact-dependent effectors that are either secreted into the medium or directly translocated into a target cell. In this minireview, we summarize the diversity of these molecules and highlight distinct mechanisms to disrupt the peptidoglycan, giving special attention to molecules that are known or have the potential to be used during interbacterial competitions.
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