IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-50591-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A bacteriocin expression platform for targeting pathogenic bacterial species

Author

Listed:
  • Jack W. Rutter

    (University College London)

  • Linda Dekker

    (University College London)

  • Chania Clare

    (University College London)

  • Zoe F. Slendebroek

    (University College London)

  • Kimberley A. Owen

    (University College London)

  • Julie A. K. McDonald

    (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London)

  • Sean P. Nair

    (UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London)

  • Alex J. H. Fedorec

    (University College London)

  • Chris P. Barnes

    (University College London)

Abstract

Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that are naturally produced by many bacteria. They hold great potential in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria, including ESKAPE pathogens. Engineered live biotherapeutic products (eLBPs) that secrete bacteriocins can be created to deliver targeted bacteriocin production. Here we develop a modular bacteriocin secretion platform that can be used to express and secrete multiple bacteriocins from non-pathogenic Escherichia coli host strains. As a proof of concept we create Enterocin A (EntA) and Enterocin B (EntB) secreting strains that show strong antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in vitro, and characterise this activity in both solid culture and liquid co-culture. We then develop a Lotka-Volterra model that can be used to capture the interactions of these competitor strains. We show that simultaneous exposure to EntA and EntB can delay Enterococcus growth. Our system has the potential to be used as an eLBP to secrete additional bacteriocins for the targeted killing of pathogenic bacteria.

Suggested Citation

  • Jack W. Rutter & Linda Dekker & Chania Clare & Zoe F. Slendebroek & Kimberley A. Owen & Julie A. K. McDonald & Sean P. Nair & Alex J. H. Fedorec & Chris P. Barnes, 2024. "A bacteriocin expression platform for targeting pathogenic bacterial species," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-50591-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50591-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50591-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-50591-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-50591-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.