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Rival colonies of bacteria can produce lethal chemicals, keeping competitors at bay
Rival colonies of the bacteria Paenibacillus dendritiformis can produce a lethal chemical that keeps competitors at bay. When competing colonies get too close, poisons are unleashed, creating a toxic no-man's land in between. By halting the growth of nearby colonies and even killing some of the cells, groups of bacteria preserve scarce resources for themselves, even when the encroaching colony is closely related.
[Research performed at the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, an NSF Physics Frontiers Center, under grants PHY 0216576 and PHY 0225630.]
Learn more in the Eurekalert news story Colonies of bacteria fight for resources with lethal protein. Or read the published study in PNAS, Lethal protein produced in response to competition between sibling bacterial colonies. (Date of Image: 2009) (Date added to Multimedia Gallery: Aug. 5, 2010)
Credit: Eshel Ben-Jacob
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