Identification of functions affecting predatorprey interactions between Myxococcus xanthus and Bacillus subtilis

Abstract

Soil bacteria engage each other in competitive and cooperative ways to determine their microenvironments. In this study, we report the identification of a large number of genes required for Myxococcus xanthus to engage Bacillus subtilis in a predatorprey relationship. We generated and tested over 6,000 individual transposon insertion mutants of M. xanthus and found many new factors required to promote efficient predation, including the specialized metabolite myxoprincomide, an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter permease, and a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) locus encoding bacterial immunity. We also identified genes known to be involved in predation, including those required for the production of exopolysaccharides and type IV pilus (T4P)-dependent motility, as well as chemosensory and two-component systems. Furthermore, deletion of these genes confirmed their role during predation. Overall, M. xanthus predation appears to be a multifactorial process, with multiple determinants enhancing predation capacity.