Tailocin as an alternative weapon to type VI secretion system in bee gut symbionts

Tailocin loci are ubiquitously present in Snodgrassella genomes and purified tailocins inhibit growth of multiple Snodgrassella strains while sparing other bee-gut co-occurring species.

• Why it matters: Antagonistic interactions structure bee gut microbial communities, but the natural roles of tailocins as weapons are not well defined.
• What they did: The study purified tailocins from different Snodgrassella strains, used proteomics to confirm production, and applied cryogenic electron microscopy to link morphology with membrane-disrupting killing.
• The result: In gnotobiotic honeybees, single- and double-gene knockouts in a predator Snodgrassella showed that both tailocin and T6SS are important for intraspecies competition, with stronger priority effects when the producer colonizes first.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.