Researchers from the U.K.-based Universities of Nottingham and Birmingham identified for the first time the mechanism Bdellovibrio uses to preserve its own cell walls while it eats other bacteria. The Bdellovibrio bacteria produce enzymes that function as weapons to attack other bacteria, first by loosening their cell walls then causing them to expand, making room for the predatory Bdellovibrio. However, before the enzymes exit the bacteria, Bdellovibrio is able to recruit a protein it produces and bind it to the tip of the enzymes, protecting itself from a similar fate. When the researchers disabled the Bd3460 gene, which creates the protective protein, the bacteria were not able to attack.
“When the Bd3460 gene responsible for antidote production was deleted, the Bdellovibrio had no way of protecting itself from its own weapons,” Liz Sockett, a University of Nottingham professor and study co-author, said in a statement. When it attacked harmful bacteria with its cell-wall-damaging enzymes it also felt the effects. The Bdellovibrio bacteria lacking the Bd3460 gene tried to invade the bacteria but suddenly rounded up like pufferfish and couldn’t complete the invasion — the fatter predator cell could not enter the prey cell.”
This insight into the evolution of bacterial predators and bacterial self-protective mechanisms could be applied to stemming the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance, according to the research.
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