Bacteria poison and eat their neighbors

Carey D Nadell^{1

2}, Christopher J Marx³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA.

Comment

Carey D Nadell et al. Science. 2025.

. 2025 Jun 12;388(6752):1134-1135.

doi: 10.1126/science.ady7008. Epub 2025 Jun 12.

Carey D Nadell^{1

2}, Christopher J Marx³

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA.

Abstract

Bacteria leverage a secretion system to kill and scavenge nutrients from nearby competitors.

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities.
Stubbusch AKM, Peaudecerf FJ, Lee KS, Paoli L, Schwartzman J, Stocker R, Basler M, Schubert OT, Ackermann M, Magnabosco C, D'Souza GG. Stubbusch AKM, et al. Science. 2025 Jun 12;388(6752):1214-1217. doi: 10.1126/science.adr8286. Epub 2025 Jun 12. Science. 2025. PMID: 40504916