ArticleCurrent biology : CB2020
Biofilm Bacteria Use Stress Responses to Detect and Respond to Competitors.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 127 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Artificial Sweeteners Induce Bacterial Drug Resistance and Modulate Gene Expression.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- A delivered DNase toxin creates population heterogeneity through transient intoxication of siblings.mBio · 2025Article
- Characterizing interactions of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in dual-species implant-associated biofilms.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Salmonella stress response systems as targets for anti-virulence strategies.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Clove, Cinnamon, and Peppermint Essential Oils as Antibiofilm Agents AgainstMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- EPS inhibitor treatment of Salmonella impacts evolution without selecting for resistance to biofilm inhibition.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Competing microorganisms with exclusion effects against multidrug-resistantVeterinary world · 2025Article
- Orthopaedic infections: novel treatment strategies and evolving concepts.OTA international : the open access journal of orthopaedic trauma · 2025Article
- Bacillus subtilis ensures high spore quality in competition with Salmonella Typhimurium via the SigB-dependent pathway.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Interspecies interaction alters the trajectory of antibiotic resistance evolution by amplifying negative fitness epistasis.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Article
- A novel strategy for eradication of staphylococcal biofilms using blood clots.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
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- Selective colonization of microplastics, wood and glass by antimicrobial-resistant and pathogenic bacteria.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2024Article
- Engineering Microbial Consortia as Living Materials: Advances and Prospectives.ACS synthetic biology · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteria use complex regulatory networks to cope with stress, but the function of these networks in natural habitats is poorly understood. The competition sensing hypothesis states that bacterial stress response systems can serve to detect ecological competition, but studying regulatory responses in diverse communities is challenging. Here, we solve this problem by using differential fluorescence induction to screen the Salmonella Typhimurium genome for loci that respond, at the single-cell level, to life in biofilms with competing strains of S. Typhimurium and Escherichia coli. This screening reveals the presence of competing strains drives up the expression of genes associated with biofilm matrix production (CsgD pathway), epithelial invasion (SPI1 invasion system), and, finally, chemical efflux and antibiotic tolerance (TolC efflux pump and AadA aminoglycoside 3-adenyltransferase). We validate that these regulatory changes result in the predicted phenotypic changes in biofilm, mammalian cell invasion, and antibiotic tolerance. We further show that these responses arise via activation of major stress responses, providing direct support for the competition sensing hypothesis. Moreover, inactivation of the type VI secretion system (T6SS) of a competitor annuls the responses to competition, indicating that T6SS-derived cell damage activates these stress response systems. Our work shows that bacteria use stress responses to detect and respond to competition in a manner important for major phenotypes, including biofilm formation, virulence, and antibiotic tolerance.
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Registered trials
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.