We congratulate Hari and Pierre to the latest paper, which is published under the title “Pleiotropic regulation of bacterial toxin production and Allee effect govern microbial predator–prey interactions” in ISME Communications!
Soil organisms such as bacteria and amoeba engage in a wide range of social interactions, including predation. In response, bacteria often produce toxic natural products, which is a well-known escape strategy to kill bacterivores. However the dynamics of such interactions remain poorly understood. Using soil-like microcosms along with imaging and analytical techniques, we were able to demonstrate that a toxic bacterium, previously considered to be an extracellular pathogen, was indeed consumed by amoeba. Examining this interaction at the microscopic scale revealed the involvement of environmental and population-dependent factors in the production of toxic natural products, turning inedible bacteria to edible and vice versa.
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