Abstract
Infections at mucosal barriers often involve polymicrobial communities of bacteria, but the differential requirements for fitness in these contexts are poorly understood. Using transposon sequencing (Tn-Seq) and an oral polymicrobial model, Perpich et al. (e00170-22) found that the majority of conditionally essential genes in Porphyromonas gingivalis were specific to the partner species, indicating that synergistic mechanisms of P. gingivalis vary broadly according community composition. Among the limited number of genes essential for fitness with more than one partner species was ptk1, encoding a bacterial tyrosine (BY) kinase. Hence, a tyrosine phosphorylation network in P. gingivalis may integrate and coordinate input from multiple organisms.
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