Bacterial competition in planta: The Type 6 Secretion System (T6SS) paradigm
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Life Sciences
Abstract
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People |
ORCID iD |
| Alain Filloux (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Allsopp LP
(2020)
Causalities of war: The connection between type VI secretion system and microbiota.
in Cellular microbiology
Hachani A
(2016)
Type VI secretion and anti-host effectors.
in Current opinion in microbiology
Howard SA
(2019)
Looking inside an injection system.
in eLife
Bernal P
(2018)
Type VI secretion systems in plant-associated bacteria.
in Environmental microbiology
Smith WD
(2017)
Current and future therapies for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in patients with cystic fibrosis.
in FEMS microbiology letters
Wettstadt S
(2020)
Solving the Puzzle: Connecting a Heterologous Agrobacterium tumefaciens T6SS Effector to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa Spike Complex.
in Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology
Filloux A
(2018)
Multiple Structures Disclose the Secretins' Secrets.
in Journal of bacteriology
Howard SA
(2021)
The Breadth and Molecular Basis of Hcp-Driven Type VI Secretion System Effector Delivery.
in mBio
McCarthy RR
(2017)
Contribution of Cyclic di-GMP in the Control of Type III and Type VI Secretion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
in Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
McCarthy RR
(2019)
Cyclic di-GMP inactivates T6SS and T4SS activity in Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
in Molecular microbiology
| Description | The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is used by bacteria to outcompete other bacteria by injecting effectors and toxins into prey cells to kill them. We have used two bacteria (Agrobacterium and Pseudomonas) to understand how these toxins are transported in a specific manner and evaluate how we can manipulate the delivery device to engineer bacterial strains equipped with a T6SS that deliver toxins of our choice into preys (pathogens) of our choice. We have demonstrated that in Agrobacterium tumefaciens the type VI secretion system is negatively controlled by c-di-GMP signalling. This was done by overexpressing a cyclase from Pseudomonas or Agrobacterium. We also observed that the type IV secretion system is decreased at high c-di-GMP concentration so that both major secretions systems are muzzled. Finally we shoed that the c-di-GMP contro; is independent f the ExoR/ChvI/ChvG reulatory network. This work led by Ronan McCarthy is currently summarized in an article that we will submit to PLoS Pathogens. We have now shown that an accessory T6SS protein from the Pseudomonas putida K1-T6SS, we called tagB, has a major role in the speed and dynamic of the system. This has now been published in PNAS (Bernal et al., 2021).. |
| Exploitation Route | We could engineer innocuous bacterial strains equipped with a specifically design T6SS in order to control bacterial infections in plants and humans. We could manipulate c-di-GMP signalling to control Agrobacterium infection in planta. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Environment,Healthcare,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Description | H2020-MSCA-IF-2014. Marie Curie Fellowship to Patricia Bernal - 01/02/2016 to 31/01/2018 |
| Amount | € 195,454 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | Global |
| Start | 02/2016 |
| End | 01/2018 |
| Description | Imperial College Studentship to Sarah Wettstadt (SW) |
| Amount | £66,600 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2017 |
| Description | Academia Sinica - Taiwan |
| Organisation | Academia Sinica |
| Department | Agricultural Biotechnology Research Centre |
| Country | Taiwan, Province of China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This is a collaboration between the laboratory of Ehr-Min Lai on the interaction between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Agrobacterium tumefaciens and about the role of the T6SS in the competition between these two organisms. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expertise on Agrobacterium and on the T6SS in this organism |
| Impact | We have co-authored a manuscript which has been released in Cell Host & Microbe in 2014 (see publications) We have secured a BBSRC partnership award and have started the exchange programme. Professro Erh-Min Lai and Dr Jer-Sheng Li visited Imperial in September 2015, whereas Prof Filloux and Sarah Wettstadt (PhD student) visited Academia Sinica in November 2015. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Biochemistry and Microscopy of the Pseudomonas T6SS - Despoina Mavridou |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Department of Life Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | - We have engineeered the constrcuts to overexpress tagX-tssA and tagJ-tssA from P. putida and P. aeruginosa, respectively - We have engineered constructs in which the T6SS and TagX (renamed TagB) or TagJ are tagged with GFP and visualized by fluorescence microscopy. |
| Collaborator Contribution | - Despoina Mavridou has performed biochemical analysis of the TagX-TssA and TagX-TssA complexes by co-purification approaches and electron microscopy analysis. - Despoina Mavridou together with Chris Furniss ahve imaged the speed of contarction of the T6SS sheeth in presence absence of TagB which revealed a crucial role for TagB in the T6SS dynamics. This was particulary successful using P. putida as a model. |
| Impact | A paper describing the role in T6SS dynamics is under review at Nature Communications. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Collaboration Suzana Salcedo-CNRS France- T6SS in P. aeruginosa PA7 |
| Organisation | National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS) |
| Department | IN2P3-Lyon |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contributing expertise and tools on P. aeruginosa and T6SS |
| Collaborator Contribution | Developing tools for bacteria-host interaction and inter bacterial delivery of T6SS effectors |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Cryo-EM of the Hcp-T6SS toxins complexes - Tiago Costa |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Department of Life Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have enginereed plasmids to express and purified the T6SS Hcp-Toxins complexes |
| Collaborator Contribution | Tiago Costa is involved in perfomeing EM and Cryo-EM as well as processing the images |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Statistical analysis of the spatio-temporal distribution of the T6SS in bacteria |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Engineering bacterial strains with fluorescently labelled T6SS components and recording videos |
| Collaborator Contribution | Mathematical and statistical analysis of the T6SS foci distribution in bacterial cells and bacterial populations. |
| Impact | Hiring a Wellcome Trust PhD student, Scott Ward, who is hosted by Niall Adams in the Department of Mathematics |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Academia Sinica (IPMB), Taipei, Taiwan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | talk in the context of networking with our collaborator Erh-Min Lai |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Talks Filloux |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a visit to establish and nurture the collaboration with the group of Professor Erh-Min Lai in the context of our BBSRC partnership award. I gave two talks to engage with Post-docs and students and to stimulate discussion for future plans in our project. The title of the talks were: Rewiring c-di-GMP signalling to control bacterial biofilm formation & motility AND The Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type VI secretion system: a phage-like bacterial killing device The visit lasted from November 8 to 14, 2015 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | European Course on Microbial Evolution and Molecular Epidemiology, ENS Lyon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Course for for French Microbiologists at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Imperial Festival - Super Bugs Zone - 27-29 April 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Open Day odf the CMBI at the annula Impetrial Festival. Several stands at the Supoer Bugs Zone describing multiple aspects of bacterial pathogens. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Imperial Festival Outreach - Super Bugs Zone - Educating chirldren to the world of Microbiology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Several members of the Filloux's group, Laura Nolan (PDRA), Patricia Bernal (PDRA), Lukke Allsopp (PDRA), Thomas Wood (PhD student), Panayiota Pissaridou (PhD student), Sophie Howard (PhD student) and Sara Planamente (PDRA), designed a stand in May 2017 for the Imperial festival. These were describing various aspects of Microbiology from recognizing a bacterium to detailed molecular mechanisms of an antibacterial weapon, the T6SS. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | talk in the context of Networking with future collaborators in Singapore on biofilm, c-di-GMP signalling and T6SS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Networking with our collaborator Erh-Min Lai in Taiwan |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| Description | Patricia Bernal presentation at the 6th Congress of European Microbiologists, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Bernal P., Civantos, C., Filloux, A. and Llamas M.A. Type VI secretion in the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida: role in bacterial competition. Poster presented at the 6th Congress of European Microbiologists, Maastricht, The Netherlands, June 7-11, 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Poster presentation by Thomas Wood at the FEMS 2017 meeting on the T6SS effector VgrG2b |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | PhD student from the Filloyx's group presenting work on the T6SS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Poster presented by Sara Planamente, Panyiota Pissaridou and Sarah Wettstadt at the Pseudomonas conference in Liverpool - The T6SS machinery and its effectors |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of our work on the T6SS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Posters from Luke Allsopp, Thomas Wood and Sarah Wettsadt at the 5th Molecular Microbiology and 4th Midlands Molecular Microbiology Meeting in Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | PDRA and PhD students from the Filloux lab, Luke Allsopp, Thomas Wood and Sarah Wettsadt, presented talks and poster on the T6SS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Talk Alain Filloux Academia Sinica in Taipei |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | From January 15th, 2017 to January 23rd 2017, Alain Filloux visited Erh-Min Lai laboratory and to further discuss the collaboration and give a talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | The Pseudomonas putida T6SS is a plant warden against phytopathogens. Talk Patricia Bernal at the I Department of Life Sciences Postdoc Symposium, London, UK, March 30th, 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk to communicate research within the postgraduate community in London |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |