Bacteria can repurpose their own bacteriophage viruses (phage) to kill competing bacteria. Phage-derived elements are frequently strain specific in their killing activity, although there is limited evidence that this specificity drives bacterial population dynamics. Here, we identified intact phage and their derived elements in a metapopulation of wild plant–associated Pseudomonas genomes. We discovered that the most abundant viral cluster encodes a phage remnant resembling a phage tail called a tailocin, which bacteria have co-opted to kill bacterial competitors. Each pathogenic Pseudomonas strain carries one of a few distinct tailocin variants that target the variable polysaccharides in the outer membrane of co-occurring pathogenic Pseudomonas strains. Analysis of herbarium samples from the past 170 years revealed that the same tailocin and bacterial receptor variants have persisted in Pseudomonas populations. These results suggest that tailocin genetic diversity can be mined to develop targeted “tailocin cocktails” for microbial control.

中文翻译：

---

噬菌体尾样细菌素抑制病原菌集合种群中的竞争者


细菌可以重新利用自己的噬菌体病毒（噬菌体）来杀死竞争细菌。噬菌体衍生元件的杀伤活性通常具有菌株特异性，尽管有限的证据表明这种特异性驱动细菌种群动态。在这里，我们在野生植物相关假单胞菌基因组的集合种群中鉴定了完整的噬菌体及其衍生元件。我们发现，最丰富的病毒簇编码一种类似于噬菌体尾巴的噬菌体残余物，称为尾菌素，细菌利用它来杀死细菌竞争对手。每个致病性假单胞菌菌株都携带几种不同的尾素变体之一，这些变体针对共存的致病性假单胞菌菌株外膜中的可变多糖。对过去 170 年植物标本的分析表明，假单胞菌种群中持续存在相同的尾素和细菌受体变体。这些结果表明，可以挖掘tailocin遗传多样性来开发用于微生物控制的有针对性的“tailocin鸡尾酒”。