Host-Like Conditions Are Required for T6SS-Mediated Competition among Vibrio fischeri Light Organ Symbionts.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria employ diverse competitive strategies to enhance fitness and promote their own propagation. However, little is known about how symbiotic bacteria modulate competitive mechanisms as they compete for a host niche. The bacterium Vibrio fischeri forms a symbiotic relationship with marine animals and encodes a type VI secretion system (T6SS), which is a contact-dependent killing mechanism used to eliminate competitors during colonization of the Euprymna scolopes squid light organ. Like other horizontally acquired symbionts, V. fischeri experiences changes in its physical and chemical environment during symbiosis establishment. Therefore, we probed both environmental and host-like conditions to identify ecologically relevant cues that control T6SS-dependent competition during habitat tr

SUBMITTER: Speare L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8386388 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature