Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Antimicrobials

Daylight robbery by Acinetobacter

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 16, page 3 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

contact-dependent neighbour killing may be a widespread contributor to cross-species HGT

Here, Cooper et al. used microfluidic traps to show in real time that bacterial predation by Acinetobacter baylyi (which is closely related to A. baumannii) increases the rate of HGT from Escherichia coli. Their results support a model whereby the T6SS of A. baylyi promotes HGT by killing neighbouring E. coli cells, which then release their DNA for subsequent uptake by A. baylyi. Importantly, predatory A. baylyi cells acquired antibiotic resistance genes from E. coli prey cells. Newly kanamycin-resistant A. baylyi outcompeted both E. coli and the sensitive parent strain in the presence of the antibiotic, which indicates functional and adaptive HGT from prey to predator. Moreover, co-culture of E.coli with wild-type A. baylyi and a mutant A. baylyi that lacked a functional T6SS (non-killing cells) increased HGT from E. coli to non-killing A. baylyi. These results highlight the importance of polymicrobial population dynamics in HGT and in the emergence of multidrug resistance.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Cooper, R. M., Tsimring, L. & Hasty, J. Inter-species population dynamics enhance microbial horizontal gene transfer and spread of antibiotic resistance. eLife http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25950 (2017)

Download references

Authors
  1. Andrea Du Toit
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Du Toit, A. Daylight robbery by Acinetobacter. Nat Rev Microbiol 16, 3 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.147

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.147

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Microbiology

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Microbiology