The Natural History of Bacteriocins
David M. Gordon
from: The Bacteriocins: Current Knowledge and Future Prospects (Edited by: Robert L. Dorit, Sandra M. Roy and Margaret A. Riley). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2016) Pages: 1-10.
Abstract
A variety of empirical and theoretical studies have demonstrated the significant role that the production of alleopathic compounds known as bacteriocins play in mediating inter- and intra-specific interactions among bacteria, and hence in shaping bacterial community diversity. There is also increasing recognition that bacteriocins may provide viable alternatives to traditional antibiotics and are a likely to be a key characteristic of probiotic strains used to prevent or limit the establishment of diarrheal pathogens. The goal of this chapter is to highlight some potentially important factors, genetic and environmental, that influence the likelihood that bacteriocin production will actually confer a fitness advantage to the producing strains and that also influence the type of bacteriocin being produced. The applied use of bacteriocins requires understanding why the production of multiple bacteriocins by a single strain is such a common phenomena in species like Esherichia coli. Finally, much of our understanding of the ecological role of bacteriocins comes from studies of the colicins released as a consequence of cell lysis, but all microcins and many colicins are secreted from the cell, and some experimental evidence is presented that would suggest we have a very incomplete understanding of the dynamics of the secreted bacteriocins read more ...
