Tribal warfare: Commensal Neisseria kill pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae using its DNA
Authors:Magdalene So1 and Maria A. Rendón1
doi: 10.15698/mic2019.12.701
Volume 6, pp. 544 to 546, published 19/10/2019.
1 Department of Immunobiology and the BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
Keywords:
commensal Neisseria, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, DNA killing.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors have no conflict of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Magdalene So and Maria A. Rendón (2019). Tribal warfare: Commensal Neisseria kill pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae using its DNA. Microbial Cell 6(12): 544-546. doi: 10.15698/mic2019.12.701
© 2019 So and Rendón. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
It is now abundantly clear that our microbiota (commensals) are critical for many physiological and developmental processes. They have also been shown to inhibit pathogen colonization, through a variety of means including nutrient competition and secretion of microbicidal or biofilm-inhibiting proteins/peptides. Our recent study, Kim et al., (2019), adds a new dimension to the concept of commensal protection. It shows that commensal Neisseria kill the closely related pathogen N. gonorrhoeae through an unexpected mechanism, one that involves genetic competence, DNA methylation state and recombination. This microreview summarizes the report and discusses questions and lines of research arising from the study. Further investigation into this DNA-based killing mechanism will provide a better understanding of Neisseria biology and commensal-pathogen interactions on the mucosa, and identify strategies for preventing pathogenic Neisseria transmission.