Streptococcus salivarius, a commensal bacterium dwelling in our gut, uses a secreted signaling peptide or pheromone to communicate with siblings in order to coordinate secretion of bacteriocins (bacteria killers used for predation) and acquisition of foreign DNA (competence for natural transformation) at the population scale, a strategy to optimize the survival rate.
Dr. J. Mignolet, visitor researcher at the LIBST (Pascal Hols’ lab, BGM) and R&D project Manager at Syngulon, unearths new pheromones able to disconnect these two processes, specifically driving the exclusive production of bacteriocins.
This discovery might be considered for medical applications. Administration of activating peptides in mouth or gut should mobilize bacteriocins on demand in the endogenous S. salivarius population of the human microbiome and clear mucosa from specific pathogenic bacteria.