McDougald Diane, Rice Scott A, Kjelleberg Staffan
The Centre for Marine Biofouling and Bio-Innovation, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2007 Jan;387(2):445-53. doi: 10.1007/s00216-006-0761-2. Epub 2006 Sep 26.
Bacteria are able to coordinate gene expression as a community through the secretion and detection of signalling molecules so that the members of the community can simultaneously express specific behaviours. This mechanism of regulation of behaviour appears to be a key trait for adaptation to specific environments and has been shown to regulate a variety of important phenotypes, from virulence factor production to biofilm formation to symbiosis related behaviours such as bioluminescence. The ability to communicate and communally regulate gene expression is hypothesised to have evolved as a way for organisms to delay expression of phenotypes until numerical supremacy is reached. For example, in the case of infection, if an invading microorganism were to express virulence factors too early, the host may be able to mount a successful defence and repel the invaders. There is growing evidence that bacterial quorum sensing (QS) systems are involved in cross-kingdom signalling with eukaryotic organisms and that eukaryotes are capable of actively responding to bacteria in their environment by detecting and acting upon the presence of these signalling molecules. Likewise, eukaryotes produce compounds that can interfere with QS systems in bacteria by acting as agonists or antagonists. An exciting new field of study, biomimetics, takes inspiration from nature's models and attempts to design solutions to human problems, and biomimics of QS systems may be one such solution. This article presents the acylated homoserine lactone and autoinducer 2 QS systems in bacteria, the means of intercepting or interfering with bacterial QS systems evolved by eukaryotes, and the rational design of synthetic antagonists.
细菌能够通过分泌和检测信号分子作为一个群体来协调基因表达，从而使群体中的成员能够同时表达特定行为。这种行为调节机制似乎是适应特定环境的关键特性，并且已被证明可以调节多种重要的表型，从毒力因子的产生到生物膜的形成，再到与共生相关的行为，如生物发光。据推测，交流和共同调节基因表达的能力是生物体进化出的一种方式，以便将表型的表达延迟到达到数量上的优势。例如，在感染的情况下，如果入侵的微生物过早表达毒力因子，宿主可能能够成功防御并击退入侵者。越来越多的证据表明，细菌群体感应（QS）系统参与了与真核生物的跨界信号传递，并且真核生物能够通过检测这些信号分子的存在并对其做出反应，来积极响应其环境中的细菌。同样，真核生物产生的化合物可以通过充当激动剂或拮抗剂来干扰细菌中的QS系统。一个令人兴奋的新研究领域——仿生学，从自然模型中获取灵感，并试图设计解决人类问题的方案，而QS系统的仿生可能就是这样一种解决方案。本文介绍了细菌中的酰化高丝氨酸内酯和自诱导物2 QS系统、真核生物进化出的拦截或干扰细菌QS系统的方法，以及合成拮抗剂的合理设计。
