Siderophore piracy enhances Vibrio cholerae environmental survival and pathogenesis

Vibrio cholerae, the aetiological agent of cholera, possesses multiple iron acquisition systems, including those for the transport of siderophores. How these systems benefit V. cholerae in low iron, polymicrobial communities in environmental settings or during infection remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that in ironlimiting conditions, coculture of V. cholerae with a number of individual siderophoreproducing microbes significantly promoted V. cholerae growth in vitro. We further show that in the host environment with low iron, V. cholerae colonizes better in adult mice in the presence of the siderophoreproducing commensal Escherichia coli. Taken together, our results suggest that in aquatic reservoirs or during infection, V. cholerae may overcome environmental and host iron restriction by hijacking siderophores from other microbes.