A chimeric siderophore halts swarming Vibrio.

ABSTRACT: Some bacteria swarm under some circumstances; they move rapidly and collectively over a surface. In an effort to understand the molecular signals controlling swarming, we isolated two bacterial strains from the same red seaweed, Vibrio alginolyticus B522, a vigorous swarmer, and Shewanella algae B516, which inhibits V. alginolyticus swarming in its vicinity. Plate assays combined with NMR, MS, and X-ray diffraction analyses identified a small molecule, which was named avaroferrin, as a potent swarming inhibitor. Avaroferrin, a previously unreported cyclic dihydroxamate siderophore, is a chimera of two well-known siderophores: putrebactin and bisucaberin. The sequenced genome of S. algae revealed avaroferrin's biosynthetic gene cluster to be a mashup of putrebactin and bisucaberin biosynthe

SUBMITTER: Bottcher T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4040223 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature