Cannibalism and fratricide: mechanisms and raisons d'être
Top Cited Papers
- 1 March 2007
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature Reviews Microbiology
- Vol. 5 (3) , 219-229
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1613
Abstract
Cannibalism and fratricide refer to the killing of genetically identical cells (siblings) that was recently documented in two Gram-positive species, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus pneumoniae, respectively. Cannibalism occurs during the early stages of sporulation in B. subtilis, whereas fratricide occurs in S. pneumoniae during natural genetic transformation. Here, we compare and contrast these two phenomena and discuss whether these processes are fundamentally different from the more traditional 'chemical warfare' among bacteria.Keywords
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