ArticleNature microbiology2024
Specialized Listeria monocytogenes produce tailocins to provide a population-level competitive growth advantage.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 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.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- F-Type Pyocin Versus Phage λ Tail: Conserved Hub, Divergent Fibers.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Efagins - engineerable agents that evolved independently to target the enterococcal cell wall.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cryogenic electron tomography by the numbers: Charting underexplored lineages in structural cell biology.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Population structure and gene flux ofMicrobial genomics · 2025Article
- Structure of an F-type phage tail-like bacteriocin from Listeria monocytogenes.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tailocins are phage tail-like bacteriocins produced by various bacterial species to kill kin competitors. Given that tailocin release is dependent upon cell lysis, regulation of tailocin production at the single-cell and population level remains unclear. Here we used flow cytometry, competition assays and structural characterization of tailocin production in a human bacterial pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes. We revealed that a specialized subpopulation, constituting less than 1% of the total bacterial population, differentiates to produce, assemble and store thousands of tailocin particles. Tailocins are packed in a highly ordered manner, clustered in a liquid crystalline phase that occupies a substantial volume of the cell. Tailocin production confers a competitive growth advantage for the rest of the population. This study provides molecular insights into tailocin production as a form of altruism, showing how cell specialization within bacterial populations can confer competitive advantages at the population level.
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Registered trials
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