An antimicrobial Staphylococcus sciuri with broad temperature and salt spectrum isolated from the surface of the African social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek volume 114, pages325–335(2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Some social arthropods engage in mutualistic symbiosis with antimicrobial compound-producing microorganisms that provide protection against pathogens. Social spiders live in communal nests and contain specific endosymbionts with unknown function. Bacteria are also found on the spiders’ surface, including prevalent staphylococci, which may have protective potential. Here we present the genomic and phenotypic characterization of strain i1, isolated from the surface of the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. Phylogenomic analysis identified i1 as novel strain of Staphylococcus sciuri within subgroup 2 of three newly defined genomic subgroups. Further phenotypic investigations showed that S. sciuri i1 is an extremophile that can grow at a broad range of temperatures (4 °C–45 °C), high salt concentrations (up to 27%), and has antimicrobial activity against closely related species. We identified a lactococcin 972-like bacteriocin gene cluster, likely responsible for the antimicrobial activity, and found it conserved in two of the three subgroups of S. sciuri. These features indicate that S. sciuri i1, though not a specific symbiont, is well-adapted to survive on the surface of social spiders and may gain a competitive advantage by inhibiting closely related species.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Data availability

The genome sequence of S. sciuri i1 has been deposited in NCBI GenBank under accession number PRJNA412144. The strain is available from the authors on request.

Code availability

All software used is publicly available as stated in the methods section.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Britta Poulsen and Susanne Nielsen for technical assistance, and Virginia Settepani for collecting and handling social spiders. We also thank Orkney Banks for isolating S. sciuri i1 and Christine Lorenzen Elberg for laboratory assistance.

Funding

This study was funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC StG-2011_282163 to TB), and The Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences.

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Author notes

  1. Seven Nazipi and Sofie G. Vangkilde-Pedersen have contributed equally to the publication.

Affiliations

  1. Section for Microbiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, Building 1540, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Seven Nazipi, Sofie G. Vangkilde-Pedersen, Mette Marie Busck, Dorthe Kirstine Lund, Ian P. G. Marshall, Marie Braad Lund & Andreas Schramm

  2. Section for Genetics, Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Trine Bilde

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  1. Seven Nazipi
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Contributions

SN, SV, TB, AS conceived and designed the study; SN, SV, DKL performed research; SN, SV, MMB, IM, MBL, AS analyzed data; SN, SV, AS wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Andreas Schramm.

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Nazipi, S., Vangkilde-Pedersen, S.G., Busck, M.M. et al. An antimicrobial Staphylococcus sciuri with broad temperature and salt spectrum isolated from the surface of the African social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola . Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 114, 325–335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-021-01526-6

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Keywords

  • Spider-associated staphylococcus
  • S. sciuri subgroup
  • Genomics
  • Lactococcin
  • Bacteriocin