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Intermicrobial Hitchhiking: How Nonmotile Microbes Leverage Communal Motility
1Institute for Biology, Leiden University, Sylviusweg 72, 2333, BE, Leiden, The Netherlands; Centre for Microbial Cell Biology, Leiden University, Sylviusweg 72, 2333, BE, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Trends in Microbiology
|November 8, 2020
Summary
Nonmotile microbes can hitchhike on motile ones for transport, a phenomenon impacting human and plant pathogens. This widespread microbial interaction warrants further research.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Microbial Ecology
- Pathogenesis
Background:
- Motility is crucial for microbes to find resources and escape adverse conditions.
- Nonmotile microbes are typically restricted to their immediate environment.
- Sporadic reports show nonmotile microbes utilizing motility machinery of neighboring microbes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To comprehensively review intermicrobial hitchhiking mechanisms.
- To explore the influence of hitchhiking on human and plant health.
- To hypothesize the ubiquity of microbial hitchhiking.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of reported hitchhiking instances.
- Analysis of hitchhiking mechanisms across prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes.
- Discussion of implications for human and plant health.
Main Results:
- Microbial hitchhiking involves nonmotile microbes using the motility apparatus of other microbes.
- This phenomenon is observed in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes.
- Many hitchhiking microbes are significant human and plant pathogens.
Conclusions:
- Microbial hitchhiking is a widespread phenomenon in nature.
- Understanding hitchhiking mechanisms is crucial for assessing impacts on health.
- Microbial hitchhiking may emerge as a distinct subfield of microbiology.
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