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Comment
. 2018 May;26(5):389-391.
doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2018.03.002. Epub 2018 Mar 24.

Mobilization of Bacteriocins during Competence in Streptococci

Charles Y Wang  1 , Suzanne Dawid  2
Affiliations
Comment

Mobilization of Bacteriocins during Competence in Streptococci

Charles Y Wang et al. Trends Microbiol. 2018 May.

Abstract

Many streptococci have evolved the ability for natural genetic competence. Recent studies have uncovered regulatory links between competence and the production of antimicrobial peptides called bacteriocins in multiple streptococcal species. This reveals a broadly distributed strategy among streptococci to exploit bacteriocin-mediated killing during competence for adaptive gain.

Keywords: Streptococcus; bacteriocin; competence; regulation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Competence-Bacteriocin Cross-regulation in Streptococci. Left: phylogeny of the major species groups of the genus Streptococcus [7]. Branch lengths are not to scale. Right: regulation of competence and competence-to-bacteriocin crosstalk in (from top to bottom) S. mutans [3], S. salivarius [2], and S. pneumoniae [4, 5]. In all cases, the alternative sigma factor ComX is the master regulator of competence. The mechanism of ComS processing and export remains unknown. Note that in S. mutans, MIP, BlpH, and BlpR were formerly named CSP, ComD, and ComE, respectively. XIP: ComX-inducing peptide; CSP: competence-stimulating peptide; MIP: mutacin-inducing peptide.
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References

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