It Takes Two to Tango: A Bacterial Biofilm Provides Protection against a Fungus-Feeding Bacterial Predator.

ABSTRACT: Fungus-bacterium interactions are widespread, encompass multiple interaction types from mutualism to parasitism, and have been frequent targets for microbial inoculant development. In this study, using in vitro systems combined with confocal laser scanning microscopy and real-time quantitative PCR, we test whether the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Kosakonia radicincitans can provide protection to the plant-beneficial fungus Serendipita indica, which inhabits the rhizosphere and colonizes plants as an endophyte, from the fungus-feeding bacterium Collimonas fungivorans. We show that K. radicincitans can protect fungal hyphae from bacterial feeding on solid agar medium, with probable mechanisms being quick hyphal colonization and biofilm formation. We furthermore find

SUBMITTER: Sharma S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8398733 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature