Bacteria perform mass suicide
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Bacteria Perform Mass Suicide to Defend their Colony – New Study

The scientists at Oxford University’s Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry demonstrated in a study that bacteria, in order to take down competitors, warring bacteria will engage in suicidal attacks in vast numbers.

Bacteria are aggressive organisms and to inhibit their competitors, they have evolved a host of harsh and severe ways to kill. To release large toxins that kill other strains, bacteria’s cells actively break themselves apart and die releasing the toxic and this is one of the most extreme of these strategies. It was typically assumed that only a few cells would perform these suicidal attacks as it was known that some bacteria do this, however, the extent of the behavior was not known. It was seen that almost all cells will kill themselves to generate a massive simultaneous attack in some areas of bacterial battlegrounds, according to a new study, published in Current Biology.

Suicidal behaviors are typically hard to understand why they would evolve and they are very rare in the natural world. Millions of bacteria engaging simultaneously in suicidal behavior are revealed in this study.

Additionally, it shows that this occurs in the common gut

bacterium, Escherichia coil, the best studied of all bacteria. Just like behaviors seen in ants, bee, and social insects, where many of them perish when large scale attacks against intruders are launched, this discovery has striking similarities to those attacks.

From Oxford University Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry, Dr. Elisa Granato, co-author of the study says, “It was surprising to see the sheer number of bacteria that died in these attacks. Why they do this is explained in the study: when cells are about to die anyway from a competitor’s toxin, cells engage in suicidal behavior. Before the cells themselves perish, this behavior allows them to mount a formidable counter-attack as it represents a last gasp attack from dying cells.

The authors used 3D time-lapse fluorescence microscopy to study the bacterial battleground in the laboratory. When the cells were engaging in suicidal behavior, the researchers found a way to make the cells change color. This allowed them to see when and how many cells perform these attacks and they could follow single cells at the front line over time as they engage with competitors.

Professor Kevin Foster, co-author of the study says, “Bacteria, like E. coli, can be both protective symbionts that live inside us and deadly pathogens. To both push back pathogens and promote so-called ‘friendly’ bacteria, the study of bacteria warfare will be helpful.”

The researchers hope that they can design probiotic bacteria to promote health and treat infections by understanding the rules of bacterial warfare more generally.

 

Source
Bacteria Perform Mass Suicide, Suicidal Attacks To Defend Their Colony