ArticlePLoS biology2020
The evolution of the type VI secretion system as a disintegration weapon.
Article in PLoS biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Love and Hate Relationship between T5SS and Other Secretion Systems in Bacteria.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- From gut colonization to recurrence:Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Bacterial weaponry and the ecological factors of competitive success.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Implications of proteome allocation constraints for understanding interbacterial antagonism.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2026Review
- Specific and broad-spectrum antibacterial effectors of type VI secretion system drive competition ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Interspecies quorum sensing signals modulate multicellular organization and enhance contact-dependent antagonism in Vibrio cholerae.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Deciphering the pangenome of the shellfish pathogenMicrobial genomics · 2026Article
- Review
- Neisseria subflava Type 6 Secretion System competition with bacterial and fungal species.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2026Article
- Carbapenem-ResistantAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The type VI secretion system and associated effector proteins.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Influence of cell-cell distance on the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Cyanobacterial flocculation as a defence against bacterial predation.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Aggregative chimeric multicellularity in the absence of lethal kin discrimination.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Type VI secretion system activity at lethal antibiotic concentrations leads to overestimation of weapon potency.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Decoding resistance in the age of T6SS warfare.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Delivery determinants of anmBio · 2025Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a nanomachine used by many bacteria to drive a toxin-laden needle into other bacterial cells. Although the potential to influence bacterial competition is clear, the fitness impacts of wielding a T6SS are not well understood. Here we present a new agent-based model that enables detailed study of the evolutionary costs and benefits of T6SS weaponry during competition with other bacteria. Our model identifies a key problem with the T6SS. Because of its short range, T6SS activity becomes self-limiting, as dead cells accumulate in its way, forming "corpse barriers" that block further attacks. However, further exploration with the model presented a solution to this problem: if injected toxins can quickly lyse target cells in addition to killing them, the T6SS becomes a much more effective weapon. We tested this prediction with single-cell analysis of combat between T6SS-wielding Acinetobacter baylyi and T6SS-sensitive Escherichia coli. As predicted, delivery of lytic toxins is highly effective, whereas nonlytic toxins leave large patches of E. coli alive. We then analyzed hundreds of bacterial species using published genomic data, which suggest that the great majority of T6SS-wielding species do indeed use lytic toxins, indicative of a general principle underlying weapon evolution. Our work suggests that, in the T6SS, bacteria have evolved a disintegration weapon whose effectiveness often rests upon the ability to break up competitors. Understanding the evolutionary function of bacterial weapons can help in the design of probiotics that can both establish well and eliminate problem species.
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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.