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Dead cells release a ‘necrosignal’ that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms

Nature Communications, ISSN: 2041-1723, Vol: 11, Issue: 1, Page: 4157
2020
  • 51
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 179
    Captures
  • 5
    Mentions
  • 35
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    51
  • Captures
    179
  • Mentions
    5
    • News Mentions
      5
      • 5
  • Social Media
    35
    • Shares, Likes & Comments
      35
      • Facebook
        35

Most Recent News

'Death screams' of swarming bacteria help their comrades survive antibiotic attacks

Swarming bacteria "scream" when they die, warning neighboring bacteria of danger.  These death shrieks aren't audible; rather, they are chemical alarms that the bacteria broadcast

Article Description

Swarming is a form of collective bacterial motion enabled by flagella on the surface of semi-solid media. Swarming populations exhibit non-genetic or adaptive resistance to antibiotics, despite sustaining considerable cell death. Here, we show that antibiotic-induced death of a sub-population benefits the swarm by enhancing adaptive resistance in the surviving cells. Killed cells release a resistance-enhancing factor that we identify as AcrA, a periplasmic component of RND efflux pumps. The released AcrA interacts on the surface of live cells with an outer membrane component of the efflux pump, TolC, stimulating drug efflux and inducing expression of other efflux pumps. This phenomenon, which we call ‘necrosignaling’, exists in other Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and displays species-specificity. Given that adaptive resistance is a known incubator for evolving genetic resistance, our findings might be clinically relevant to the rise of multidrug resistance.

Bibliographic Details

Bhattacharyya, Souvik; Walker, David M; Harshey, Rasika M

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Chemistry; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Physics and Astronomy

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