ArticleNature communications2021
Kin discrimination promotes horizontal gene transfer between unrelated strains in Bacillus subtilis.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular and Biosafety Perspectives of Bacterial Self-Healing Concrete: From Sporulation and Biomineralization to Public Health Implications.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Regulatory rewiring drives intraspecies competition in Bacillus subtilis.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Bacterial social interactions in syntheticiMeta · 2025Article
- Profiling the resistome and virulome of Bacillus strains used for probiotic-based sanitation: a multicenter WGS analysis.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Naturally competent bacteria and their genetic parasites-a battle for control over horizontal gene transfer?FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Cell-to-Cell Natural Transformation Mediated Efficient Plasmid Transfer BetweenInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Bacillus subtilis Intraspecies Interactions Shape Probiotic Activity Against Salmonella Typhimurium.Microbial biotechnology · 2024Article
- The Predatory Properties of Bradymonabacteria, the Representative of Facultative Prey-Dependent Predators.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Nonkin interactions between Bacillus subtilis soil isolates limit the spread of swarming deficient cheats.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- One Earth: The Equilibrium between the Human and the Bacterial Worlds.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The putative role of the epipeptide EpeX inMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2023Article
- Cell-to-cell natural transformation in Bacillus subtilis facilitates large scale of genomic exchanges and the transfer of long continuous DNA regions.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- Article
- Distribution of fitness effects of cross-species transformation reveals potential for fast adaptive evolution.The ISME journal · 2023Article
- Nutrient Availability and Biofilm Polysaccharide Shape the Bacillaene-Dependent Antagonism of Bacillus subtilis against Salmonella Typhimurium.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Kin Discrimination Modifies Strain Distribution, Spatial Segregation, and Incorporation of Extracellular Matrix Polysaccharide Mutants of Bacillus subtilis Strains into Mixed Floating Biofilms.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Annulment of Bacterial Antagonism Improves Plant Beneficial Activity of a Bacillus velezensis Consortium.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Systems view of Bacillus subtilis pellicle development.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2022Article
- Kin discrimination drives territorial exclusion during Bacillus subtilis swarming and restrains exploitation of surfactin.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- Resolving the conflict between antibiotic production and rapid growth by recognition of peptidoglycan of susceptible competitors.Nature communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bacillus subtilis is a soil bacterium that is competent for natural transformation. Genetically distinct B. subtilis swarms form a boundary upon encounter, resulting in killing of one of the strains. This process is mediated by a fast-evolving kin discrimination (KD) system consisting of cellular attack and defence mechanisms. Here, we show that these swarm antagonisms promote transformation-mediated horizontal gene transfer between strains of low relatedness. Gene transfer between interacting non-kin strains is largely unidirectional, from killed cells of the donor strain to surviving cells of the recipient strain. It is associated with activation of a stress response mediated by sigma factor SigW in the donor cells, and induction of competence in the recipient strain. More closely related strains, which in theory would experience more efficient recombination due to increased sequence homology, do not upregulate transformation upon encounter. This result indicates that social interactions can override mechanistic barriers to horizontal gene transfer. We hypothesize that KD-mediated competence in response to the encounter of distinct neighbouring strains could maximize the probability of efficient incorporation of novel alleles and genes that have proved to function in a genomically and ecologically similar context.
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