Bacterial vitamin B12 production enhances nematode predatory behavior.

The ISME Journal
Nermin AkdumanR J Sommer

Abstract

Although the microbiota is known to affect host development, metabolism, and immunity, its impact on host behavior is only beginning to be understood. In order to better characterize behavior modulation by host-associated microorganisms, we investigated how bacteria modulate complex behaviors in the nematode model organism Pristionchus pacificus. This nematode is a predator that feeds on the larvae of other nematodes, including Caenorhabditis elegans. By growing P. pacificus on different bacteria and testing their ability to kill C. elegans, we reveal large differences in killing efficiencies, with a Novosphingobium species showing the strongest enhancement. This enhanced killing was not accompanied by an increase in feeding, which is a phenomenon known as surplus killing, whereby predators kill more prey than necessary for sustenance. Our RNA-seq data demonstrate widespread metabolic rewiring upon exposure to Novosphingobium, which facilitated screening of bacterial mutants with altered transcriptional responses. We identified bacterial production of vitamin B12 as an important cause of such enhanced predatory behavior. Although vitamin B12 is an essential cofactor for detoxification and metabolite biosynthesis, shown previous...Continue Reading

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Datasets Mentioned

BETA
PRJEB33410

Methods Mentioned

BETA
RNA-seq
transgenic
PCR

Software Mentioned

BLASTP
ZEISS
ZEN
BWA aln
blastn
MUSCLE
Cuffdiff
R
Image J / Fiji
samse

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