Different Ancestries of R Tailocins in Rhizospheric Pseudomonas Isolates

Abstract

Bacterial genomes accommodate a variety of mobile genetic elements, including bacteriophage-related clusters that encode phage tail-likeprotein complexesplaying a role ininteractions with eukaryoticorprokaryotic cells. Such tailocins areunable toreplicate inside target cells due to the lack of a phage head with associatedDNA. Asubset of tailocins mediate antagonistic activitieswith bacteriocin-like specificity. Functional characterization of bactericidal tailocins of two Pseudomonas putida rhizosphere isolates revealed not only extensive similarity with the tail assembly module of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa R-type pyocins but also differences in genomic integration site, regulatory genes, and lytic releasemodules. Conversely, these three features are quite similar between strains of the P. putidaandPseudomonasfluorescens clades, althoughphylogenetic analysisof tailgenes suggeststhemtohave evolved separately. Unlike P. aeruginosa R pyocin elements, the tailocin gene clusters of other pseudomonads frequently carry cargo genes, including bacteriocins. Compared with P. aeruginosa, the tailocin tail fiber sequences that act as specificity determinants have divergedmuch more extensively among the other pseudomonad species, mostly isolates from soil and plant environments. Activity of the P. putida antibacterial particles requires a functional lipopolysaccharide layer on target cells, but contrary to R pyocins from P. aeruginosa, strain susceptibilities surpass species boundaries.