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Volume 169, Issue 6

ATCC 17978 encodes a microcin system with antimicrobial properties for contact-independent competition Open Access

Abstract

is a multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogen that persists in the hospital environment and causes various clinical infections, primarily affecting immunocompromised patients. has evolved a wide range of mechanisms to compete with neighbouring bacteria. One such competition strategy depends on small secreted peptides called microcins, which exert antimicrobial effects in a contact-independent manner. Here, we report that ATCC 17978 (AB17978) encodes the class II microcin 17 978 (Mcc17978) with antimicrobial activity against closely related , and surprisingly, also strains. We identified the genetic locus encoding the Mcc17978 system in AB17978. Using classical bacterial genetic approaches, we determined that the molecular receptor of Mcc17978 in is the iron-catecholate transporter Fiu, and in is Fiu’s homolog, PiuA. In bacteria, the Ferric uptake regulator (Fur) positively regulates siderophore systems and microcin systems under iron-deprived environments. We found that the Mcc17978 system is upregulated under low-iron conditions commonly found in the host environment and identified a putative Fur binding site upstream of the gene. When we tested the antimicrobial activity of Mcc17978 under different levels of iron availability, we observed that low iron levels not only triggered transcriptional induction of the microcin, but also led to enhanced microcin activity. Taken together, our findings suggest that may utilize microcins to compete with other microbes for resources during infection.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): Microcin , Acinetobacter baumannii , Fiu , Iron , Iron uptake receptor and PiuA
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • The City College Of New York (Award Startup)
    • Principle Award Recipient: StefanPukatzki
  • National Institutes of Health (Award R01AI139103)
    • Principle Award Recipient: StefanPukatzki
  • Blank Family Foundation (Award Startup)
    • Principle Award Recipient: StefanPukatzki
© 2023 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2023-06-07
2024-05-04
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Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 17978 encodes a microcin system with antimicrobial properties for contact-independent competition
Microbiology 169, 001346 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001346
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001346
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001346
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