Abstract
Myxobacteria are natural predators of microorganisms and the subjects of concerted efforts to identify novel antimicrobial compounds. Myxobacterial predatory activity seems to require more than just the possession of specific antimicrobial metabolites. Thus a holistic approach to studying predation promises novel insights into antimicrobial action. Here, we report the isolation of 113 myxobacteria from samples of soil taken from a range of habitats in mid Wales. Predatory activity of each isolate was quantified against a panel of clinically important prey organisms, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, and three species of Staphylococcus. Myxobacterial isolates exhibited a wide range of predation activity profiles against the panel of prey. Efficient predation of all prey by isolates within the collection was observed, with K. pneumoniae and C. albicans proving particularly susceptible to myxobacterial predation. Notably efficient predators tended to be proficient at predating multiple prey organisms, suggesting they possess gene(s) encoding a broad range killing activity. However, predatory activity was not congruent with phylogeny, suggesting prey range is subject to relatively rapid specialization, potentially involving lateral gene transfer. The broad but patchy prey ranges observed for natural myxobacterial isolates also implies multiple (potentially overlapping) genetic determinants are responsible for dictating predatory activity.
Highlights
Myxobacteria are social predators, studied extensively for their potential to produce natural products
There was no obvious relationship between the environment/location sampled and the species of myxobacteria isolated
Myxobacterial co-operative behaviors have been studied for several decades, motility and multicellular development (Whitworth, 2008; Muñoz-Dorado et al, 2016)
Summary
Myxobacteria are social predators, studied extensively for their potential to produce natural products. Their predatory secretions have already been extensively exploited by the pharmaceutical industry, with over 100 core structures and 500 derivatives of novel antibiotics reported in the literature (Weissman and Müller, 2010; Korp et al, 2016). Despite the ubiquitous nature of these predators and their therapeutic potential, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding the mechanisms of predation and prey killing by myxobacteria. The saprophytic myxobacteria inhabit a variety of soils, which have yielded mesophilic, thermophilic and anaerobic antibiotic-producing organisms (Dawid, 2000; Gerth and Müller, 2005), while marine sampling has produced myxobacterial predators capable of synthesizing interesting and novel antibiotics (Iizuka et al, 1998). Most isolates do not grow as smooth suspensions in liquid cultures, which hampers efforts to study their secondary metabolites (Weissman and Müller, 2009), and which in turn promotes a strategy of studying culture extracts and purified products (Charousová et al, 2017)
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