Acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing in Gram-negative bacteria: A signaling mechanism involved in associations with higher organisms
Abstract
Recent advances in studies of bacterial gene expression have brought the realization that cell-to-cell communication and community behavior are critical for successful interactions with higher organisms. Species-specific cell-to-cell communication is involved in successful pathogenic or symbiotic interactions of a variety of bacteria with plant and animal hosts. One type of cell–cell signaling is acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing in Gram-negative bacteria. This type of quorum sensing represents a dedicated communication system that enables a given species to sense when it has reached a critical population density in a host, and to respond by activating expression of genes necessary for continued success in the host. Acyl-homoserine lactone signaling in the opportunistic animal and plant pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a model for the relationships among quorum sensing, pathogenesis, and community behavior. In the P. aeruginosa model, quorum sensing is required for normal biofilm maturation and for virulence. There are multiple quorum-sensing circuits that control the expression of dozens of specific genes that represent potential virulence loci.
Footnotes
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↵ ‡ To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: epgreen{at}blue.weeg.uiowa.edu.
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This paper was presented at the National Academy of Sciences colloquium “Virulence and Defense in Host–Pathogen Interactions: Common Features Between Plants and Animals,” held December 9–11, 1999, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, CA.
- Abbreviations:
- acyl-HSL,
- acyl-homoserine lactone;
- C4-HSL,
- N-butyryl-HSL;
- 3OC12-HSL,
- N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-HSL
- Copyright © 2000, The National Academy of Sciences
