ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2014
Bacterial fight-and-flight responses enhance virulence in a polymicrobial infection.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers.
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118 citing papers in PubMed, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Exploring the Microbiome of Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A Focus on Cases with a Clinical Worse Outcome.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Elongation factor Tu promotes the onset of periodontitis through mediating bacteria adhesion.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
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- Hyphal growth determines spatial organization and coexistence in a pathogenic polymicrobial community in a spatially structured environment.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Analysis of metagenomic data.Nature reviews. Methods primers · 2025Article
- Microbiological and molecular aspects of periodontitis pathogenesis: an infection-induced inflammatory condition.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Review
- Resistance phenotypes and genomic features ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Towards improved biofilm models.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- Microbial interactions impact stress tolerance in a model oral community.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- From Global to Nano: A Geographical Perspective ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Oral Microbiome of Peri-Implant Health and Disease: A Narrative Review.Dentistry journal · 2024Review
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- Experimental Inoculation ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Facemask acne attenuation through modulation of indirect microbiome interactions.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2024Article
- Article
58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The oral pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) resides in infection sites with many microbes, including commensal streptococci such as Streptococcus gordonii (Sg). During infection, Sg promotes the virulence of Aa by producing its preferred carbon source, l-lactate, a phenomenon referred to as cross-feeding. However, as with many streptococci, Sg also produces high levels of the antimicrobial hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), leading to the question of how Aa deals with this potent antimicrobial during coinfection. Here, we show that Aa possesses two complementary responses to H2O2: a detoxification or fight response mediated by catalase (KatA) and a dispersion or flight response mediated by Dispersin B (DspB), an enzyme that dissolves Aa biofilms. Using a murine abscess infection model, we show that both of these responses are required for Sg to promote Aa virulence. Although the role of KatA is to detoxify H2O2 during coinfection, 3D spatial analysis of mixed infections revealed that DspB is required for Aa to spatially organize itself at an optimal distance (>4 µm) from Sg, which we propose allows cross-feeding but reduces exposure to inhibitory levels of H2O2. In addition, these behaviors benefit not only Aa but also Sg, suggesting that fight and flight stimulate the fitness of the community. These results reveal that an antimicrobial produced by a human commensal bacterium enhances the virulence of a pathogenic bacterium by modulating its spatial location in the infection site.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.