Bacterial pathogens are a major risk to human, animal, and plant health. To counteract the spread of antibiotic resistance, alternative antibacterial strategies are urgently needed. Here, we construct a proof-of-concept customizable, modular, and inducible antibacterial toxin delivery platform. By engineering a type VI secretion system (T6SS) that is controlled by an externally induced on/off switch, we transform the safe bacterium, Vibrio natriegens, into an effective antibacterial weapon. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the delivered effector repertoire, and thus the toxicity range of this platform, can be easily manipulated and tested. We believe that this platform can serve as a foundation for novel antibacterial bio-treatments, as well as a unique tool to study antibacterial toxins.
Keywords: Bacterial competition; effector; secretion system; synthetic biology; toxin.
© 2021 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY NC ND 4.0 license.