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. 2011 Jun;7(6):e1002096.
doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002096. Epub 2011 Jun 30.

Impact of endofungal bacteria on infection biology, food safety, and drug development

Gerald Lackner  1 , Christian Hertweck
Affiliations

Impact of endofungal bacteria on infection biology, food safety, and drug development

Gerald Lackner et al. PLoS Pathog. 2011 Jun.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Chemical and biological features of endofungal bacteria.
(A) Chemical structures of rhizoxin, an antimitotic macrolide, and rhizonin A, a hepatotoxic cyclopeptide. (B) Light micrograph of a sporangium of R. microsporus (ATCC 62147) stained with a viability assay system (Invitrogen). Green spots are living cells of the bacterial endosymbiont B. rhizoxinica. (C) Life cycle of R. microsporus strains and their endosymbionts B. rhizoxinica and B. endofungorum. Endobacteria are propagated within fungal spores (vertical transmission). Under laboratory conditions, isolated bacteria can infect compatible host strains (horizontal transmission).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Symbiosis factors of B. rhizoxinica.
(A) The role of the type III secretion system (T3SS) in bacterial–fungal symbiosis. T3SSs consist of several ring-like structures anchored in both the outer (OM) and inner membrane (IM) of Gram-negative bacteria. Energy is derived from an ATPase component situated at the cytosolic side of the protein complex. Effector proteins are secreted through a pilus structure into host cells. When key components are inactivated, mutants fail to reinfect the host. (B) Role of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in bacterial–fungal symbiosis. LPS molecules are anchored in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria by their lipid component (lipid A). The sugar components form a heterogeneous core oligosaccharide and a polymeric O-antigen. When the O-antigen is missing, mutants reinfect the host sporadically, but are incapable of establishing a stable symbiosis.
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