Membrane-Vesicle-Mediated Interbacterial Communication Activates Silent Secondary Metabolite Production.

Most bacterial biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are "silent BGCs" that are expressed poorly or not at all under normal culture conditions. However, silent BGCs, even in part, may be conditionally expressed in response to external stimuli in the original bacterial habitats. The growing knowledge of bacterial membrane vesicles (MVs) suggests that they could be promising imitators of the exogenous stimulants, especially given their functions as signaling mediators in bacterial cell-to-cell communication.