Mechanism of Regulation of Type VI Secretion System

When bacteria colonize a system, they must compete for space and nutrients. During the competition process, some bacteria can build a molecular weapon that injects toxins inside competitor cells to eliminate them. One such molecular weapon is the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS), found in various bacteria colonizing marine hosts and humans. Although this weapon can provide bacteria a competitive advantage during host colonization, we know little about the proteins that regulate the T6SS weapon. In this talk, I will describe my work using squid-vibrio symbiosis to understand how bacterial cells may regulate their T6SS weapon based on cell density.