Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2014

Abstract

Vibrio cholerae is a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen that consists of over 200 serogroups with differing pathogenic potential. Only strains that express the virulence factors cholera toxin (CT) and toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) are capable of pandemic spread of cholera diarrhoea. Regardless, all V. cholerae strains sequenced to date harbour genes for the type VI secretion system (T6SS) that translocates effectors into neighbouring eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Here we report that the effectors encoded within these conserved gene clusters differ widely among V. cholerae strains, and that immunity proteins encoded immediately downstream from the effector genes protect their host from neighbouring bacteria producing corresponding effectors. As a consequence, strains with matching effector-immunity gene sets can coexist, while strains with different sets compete against each other. Thus, the V. cholerae T6SS contributes to the competitive behaviour of this species.

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Copyright © 2014, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Publication Title

Nature Communications

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4549

Included in

Biology Commons

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