A Tad-like apparatus is required for contact-dependent prey killing in predatory social bacteria.

, a soil bacterium, predates collectively using motility to invade prey colonies. Prey lysis is mostly thought to rely on secreted factors, cocktails of antibiotics and enzymes, and direct contact with cells. In this study, we show that on surfaces the coupling of A-motility and contact-dependent killing is the central predatory mechanism driving effective prey colony invasion and consumption.

Establishing rod shape from spherical, peptidoglycan-deficient bacterial spores.

Chemical-induced spores of the Gram-negative bacterium are peptidoglycan (PG)-deficient. It is unclear how these spherical spores germinate into rod-shaped, walled cells without preexisting PG templates. We found that germinating spores first synthesize PG randomly on spherical surfaces.