Soft rot pathogen Dickeya dadantii 3937 produces tailocins resembling the tails of Peduovirus P2

Marcin Borowicz; Dorota M Krzyżanowska; Magdalena Narajczyk; Marta Sobolewska; Magdalena Rajewska; Paulina Czaplewska; Katarzyna Węgrzyn; Robert Czajkowski

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1307349

Soft rot pathogen Dickeya dadantii 3937 produces tailocins resembling the tails of Peduovirus P2

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 30:14:1307349. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1307349. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Marcin Borowicz¹, Dorota M Krzyżanowska¹, Magdalena Narajczyk², Marta Sobolewska¹, Magdalena Rajewska³, Paulina Czaplewska⁴, Katarzyna Węgrzyn⁵, Robert Czajkowski¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Biologically Active Compounds, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of UG and MUG, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
² Bioimaging Laboratory, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
³ Laboratory of Plant Microbiology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of UG and MUG, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
⁴ Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry-Core Facility Laboratories, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of UG and MUG, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
⁵ Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of UG and MUG, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.

Abstract

Tailocins are nanomolecular machines with bactericidal activity. They are produced by bacteria to contribute to fitness in mixed communities, and hence, they play a critical role in their ecology in a variety of habitats. Here, we characterized the new tailocin produced by Dickeya dadantii strain 3937, a well-characterized member of plant pathogenic Soft Rot Pectobacteriaceae (SRP). Tailocins induced in D. dadantii were ca. 166 nm long tubes surrounded by contractive sheaths with baseplates having tail fibers at one end. A 22-kb genomic cluster involved in their synthesis and having high homology to the cluster coding for the tail of the Peduovirus P2 was identified. The D. dadantii tailocins, termed dickeyocins P2D1 (phage P2-like dickeyocin 1), were resistant to inactivation by pH (3.5-12), temperature (4-50°C), and elevated osmolarity (NaCl concentration: 0.01-1 M). P2D1 could kill a variety of different Dickeya spp. but not any strain of Pectobacterium spp. tested and were not toxic to Caenorhabditis elegans.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; Erwinia chrysanthemi; bacteria-bacteria interactions; bacteriocin; bacteriophage; phage tail; tailocin.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was financially supported by the National Science Center, Poland (Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Polska) via a research grant SONATA BIS 10 (2020/38/E/NZ9/00007) to RC.