The scream of murdered bacteria allows their companions to survive during an attack of antibiotics

The latest research conducted by scientists on E. coli bacteria indicates that bacteria scream as they die, thus warning neighboring bacteria of danger.

Of course, this does not mean that bacteria make scary noises just before they die, but only emit characteristic chemical signals.

By means of this specific necro-signaling, the bacteria warn the surrounding bacteria of the presence of a lethal danger, and are therefore able to protect most of the colonies that move with them. When faced with a threat, such as antibiotics, signals from dying bacteria can give the remaining bacteria enough time to acquire the mutations that will make them resistant to the antibiotics in question.

Many species of bacteria travel with flagella, which allow them to travel long distances quickly. Sometimes bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) gather into loose, characteristic spatial patterns (swarms) of the billions and use the flagella to travel over solid surfaces.

Bacteria swarms are metabolically active and grow rapidly like a single organism. For this reason, researchers suspected that such specific 'swarms' could develop their own antibiotic resistance methods that may be different from the defense mechanisms of individual bacteria.

Some time ago, researchers noticed that when a swarm of bacteria encounters antibiotics, about 25 percent die. the whole colony. It was as if the dying bacteria were protecting the others in some way. After part of the swarm dies, the bacteria that remain actively move away from them.

To determine how the dying cells protect the rest of the swarm, scientists looked at the swarms of E. coli bacteria and how they interacted with antibiotics.

E. coli bacteria gather in swarms of billions of individual bacteria to move over solid surfaces. Material: University of Texas at Austin

Signals from the dead

Dying cells that touch the membranes of healthy bacteria send chemical signals to them. After receiving them, healthy bacteria move away from dying, which means that the transferred chemical carries information about the threat and tells healthy bacteria to move away from the place.

In addition to transmitting the warning itself, the signal from the dying cell activates pumps in the membranes of living cells to pump out antibiotics, says Rasika Harshey, Prof. molecular biology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Genes stimulated by necrosignals not only protect the surviving part of the swarm from antibiotics, but also support future immunity to the compounds that killed their companions. As if that were not enough, studies have found that some groups of bacteria are more susceptible to antibiotics than others. Bacteria swarms can contain different groups - if the new antibiotics kill the more vulnerable members of the swarm, their death will protect the rest. In this way, the dead cells allow the rest of the swarm to survive.

The conclusions from the research indicate that in dense swarms of bacteria, exposure to low doses of antibiotics leads to the acquisition of resistance to given antibiotics by the swarm.

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The scream of murdered bacteria allows their companions to survive during an attack of antibiotics