New Autoinducing Peptides Regulate Antibiotic Production for Sculpting Microbiome

This project discovers a novel class of autoinducing peptides (AIPs) derived from the plant-probiotic bacterium Paenibacillus polymyxa, identified as Pp-AIPs. Omics analyses coupled with genetic manipulation revealed that Pp-AIP1 modulates the production of multiple antimicrobial secondary metabolites at nanomolar concentration, a finding that broadens our understanding of antimicrobial regulatory mechanisms. Furthermore, through inoculating Paenibacillus on the plant Arabidopsis thaliana and conducting antimicrobial tests against root microbes, we discovered that Paenibacillus employs Pp-AIPs to shape the root microbiome through antimicrobial regulation.