RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Acquired interbacterial defense systems protect against interspecies antagonism in the human gut microbiome
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 471110
DO 10.1101/471110
A1 Benjamin D. Ross
A1 Adrian J. Verster
A1 Matthew C. Radey
A1 Danica T. Schmidtke
A1 Christopher E. Pope
A1 Lucas R. Hoffman
A1 Adeline M. Hajjar
A1 S. Brook Peterson
A1 Elhanan Borenstein
A1 Joseph D. Mougous
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/11/471110.abstract
AB The impact of direct interactions between co-resident microbes on microbiome composition is not well understood. Here we report the occurrence of acquired interbacterial defense (AID) gene clusters in bacterial residents of the human gut microbiome. These clusters encode arrays of immunity genes that protect against type VI secretion toxin-mediated intra- and inter-species bacterial antagonism. Moreover, the clusters reside on mobile elements and we demonstrate that their transfer is sufficient to confer toxin resistance in vitro and in gnotobiotic mice. Finally, we identify and validate the protective capacity of a recombinase-associated AID subtype (rAID-1) present broadly in Bacteroidales genomes. These rAID-1 gene clusters have a structure suggestive of active gene acquisition and include predicted immunity factors of toxins deriving from diverse organisms. Our data suggest that neutralization of contact-dependent interbacterial antagonism via AID systems shapes human gut microbiome ecology.