Listening in on a bacterial/fungal dialog: transcriptional profiling of an antagonistic interaction

The genus Collimonas consists of soil bacteria that are well known for their antifungal activity and for mycophagy, i.e. the ability to grow at the expense of living fungi. The aim of the current study was to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of antagonism of Collimonas bacteria towards fungi, the involvement of the mycophagous phenotype, and the role of the fungus as a responsive partner in the interaction. In order to reach this aim, the bacterium Collimonas fungivorans and the fungus Aspergillus niger were confronted in vitro. Bacterial and fungal RNA were isolated at two time points during the interaction and analyzed by microarray analysis. Objective: Investigate the expression profile of a bacterium when it was challenged by the presence of an antagonist fungus (control was the expression profile of the bacterium when it was alone). In parallel investigate the expression profile of the antagonist fungus when it was challenged by the presence of the bacterium (control was the expression profile of the fungus when it was alone).(Additional file available in additional.zip)