Identification of Pathways Critical to Quorum Sensing and Virulence Induction

Technical Report · Fri Feb 27 04:00:00 EST 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1114715· OSTI ID:1114715

Ognibene, Ted J. ^[1]; Young, N. ^[1]; Holtz-Morris, A. ^[1]; Daley, P. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Quorum sensing is a mode of intercellular communication between bacteria that allows them to collectively regulate behavior such as virulence, sporulation, motility and biofilm formation. It is mediated by bacterially synthesized, diffusible, signaling molecules (autoinducers) that increase in concentration as a bacterial population expands until a critical threshold concentration is reached. However, in most bacterial species that produce autoinducer molecules, the physiologic concentration of these molecules is unknown. Moreover, many bacterial species, including Y. pestis, produce an array of quorum sensing molecules and the physiologic concentration of each individual type of autoinducer molecule is not known. There is a need to accurately and precisely quantitate these molecules, as it may be that different types of autoinducer molecules have different effects on virulence in the bacterium. We focused our efforts on the construction of a platform to identify and quantitate autoinducer molecules using FTICR, ¹⁴C isotope labeling and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Specifically, we focused on autoinducer-1 type molecules, acylhomoserine lactone (HSL), derived from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM).

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 1114715
• Report Number(s): LLNL-TR--410964
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES