Resilience of bacterial quorum sensing against fluid flow
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Resilience of bacterial.pdf
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Author(s)
Emge, Philippe
Moeller, Jens
Stocker, Roman
Vogel, Viola
Jang, Hongchul
Rusconi, Roberto
Yawata, Yutaka
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Emge, Philippe et al. “Resilience of Bacterial Quorum Sensing against Fluid Flow.” Scientific Reports 6.1 (2016): n. pag.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) is a population-density dependent chemical process that enables bacteria to communicate based on the production, secretion and sensing of small inducer molecules. While recombinant constructs have been widely used to decipher the molecular details of QS, how those findings translate to natural QS systems has remained an open question. Here, we compare the activation of natural and synthetic Pseudomonas aeruginosa LasI/R QS systems in bacteria exposed to quiescent conditions and controlled flows. Quantification of QS-dependent GFP expression in suspended cultures and in surface-attached microcolonies revealed that QS onset in both systems was similar under quiescent conditions but markedly differed under flow. Moderate flow (Pe > 25) was sufficient to suppress LasI/R QS recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli, whereas only high flow (Pe > 102) suppressed QS in wild-type P. aeruginosa. We suggest that this difference stems from the differential production of extracellular matrix and that the matrix confers resilience against moderate flow to QS in wild-type organisms. These results suggest that the expression of a biofilm matrix extends the environmental conditions under which QS-based cell-cell communication is effective and that findings from synthetic QS circuits cannot be directly translated to natural systems.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33115
