Social amoebae establish a protective interface with their bacterial associates by lectin agglutination.

Abstract

Both animals and amoebae use phagocytosis and DNA-based extracellular traps as anti-bacterial defense mechanisms. Whether, like animals, amoebae also use tissue-level barriers to reduce direct contact with bacteria has remained unclear. We have explored this question in the social amoeba <i>Dictyostelium discoideum</i>, which forms plaques on lawns of bacteria that expand as amoebae divide and bacteria are consumed. We show that CadA, a cell adhesion protein that functions in <i>D. discoideum</i> development, is also a bacterial agglutinin that forms a protective interface at the plaque edge that limits exposure of vegetative amoebae to bacteria. This interface is important for amoebal survival when bacteria-to-amoebae ratios are high, optimizing amoebal feeding behavior, and protecting amoebae from oxidative stress. Lectins also control bacterial access to the gut epithelium of mammals to limit inflammatory processes; thus, this strategy of antibacterial defense is shared across a broad spectrum of eukaryotic taxa.