Prof. Dr. Daniel Unterweger (Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionsbiologie, Plön)

Invited guest speaker at the Biology Center of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel

Monday, October 15^th 2018, 16:15

 ZMB
Conference room 4^th floor
Am Botanischen Garten 11

As guest of the CRC 1182

Prof. Dr. Daniel Unterweger

Kiel University, MPI Plön

Talks about:

“Bacterial recognition by the type VI secretion system in microbial communities”

Abstract:

Microbial communities are an essential component of a functional metaorganism. How diverse bacteria recognize each other in these communities is little understood. I focus on the type VI secretion system (T6SS) with which bacteria differentiate between self and nonself. Toxic effector proteins translocated between bacteria by the secretion system are deadly unless bacteria are recognized as self. I developed a model system based on a bacterial surface colony, which enables me to test the role of the T6SS in a mixed community of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. My data indicates that bacteria recognized as nonself get spatially separated from those recognized as self. Furthermore, I observe a decrease in the number of bacteria recognized as nonself. Genomic analyses of a variety of strains within the species reveals compatibility groups within which bacteria recognize each other as self. These findings provide the basis for a better understanding of bacterial recognition in a metaorganism, in which bacterial species with a T6SS are commonly found.