Bacterial nanotubes as a manifestation of cell death

Jiří Pospíšil, Dragana Vítovská, Olga Kofroňová, Katarína Muchová, Hana Šanderová, Martin Hubálek, Michaela Šiková, Martin Modrák, Oldřich Benada (), Imrich Barák () and Libor Krásný ()
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Jiří Pospíšil: Laboratory of Microbial Genetics and Gene Expression, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Dragana Vítovská: Laboratory of Microbial Genetics and Gene Expression, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Olga Kofroňová: Laboratory of Molecular Structure Characterization, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Katarína Muchová: Slovak Academy of Sciences
Hana Šanderová: Laboratory of Microbial Genetics and Gene Expression, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Martin Hubálek: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Michaela Šiková: Laboratory of Microbial Genetics and Gene Expression, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Martin Modrák: Laboratory of Bioinformatics/Core Facility, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Oldřich Benada: Laboratory of Molecular Structure Characterization, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Imrich Barák: Slovak Academy of Sciences
Libor Krásný: Laboratory of Microbial Genetics and Gene Expression, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Bacterial nanotubes are membranous structures that have been reported to function as conduits between cells to exchange DNA, proteins, and nutrients. Here, we investigate the morphology and formation of bacterial nanotubes using Bacillus subtilis. We show that nanotube formation is associated with stress conditions, and is highly sensitive to the cells’ genetic background, growth phase, and sample preparation methods. Remarkably, nanotubes appear to be extruded exclusively from dying cells, likely as a result of biophysical forces. Their emergence is extremely fast, occurring within seconds by cannibalizing the cell membrane. Subsequent experiments reveal that cell-to-cell transfer of non-conjugative plasmids depends strictly on the competence system of the cell, and not on nanotube formation. Our study thus supports the notion that bacterial nanotubes are a post mortem phenomenon involved in cell disintegration, and are unlikely to be involved in cytoplasmic content exchange between live cells.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18800-2

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18800-2

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