Liu Zhi, Stirling Fiona R, Zhu Jun
Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Infect Immun. 2007 Jan;75(1):122-6. doi: 10.1128/IAI.01190-06. Epub 2006 Oct 30.
Vibrio cholerae, the pathogen that causes cholera, also survives in aqueous reservoirs, probably in the form of biofilms. Quorum sensing negatively regulates V. cholerae biofilm formation through HapR, whose expression is induced at a high cell density. In this study, we show that the concentration of the quorum-sensing signal molecule CAI-1 is higher in biofilms than in planktonic cultures. By measuring hapR expression and activity, we found that the induction of quorum sensing in biofilm-associated cells occurs earlier. We further demonstrate that the timing of hapR expression is crucial for biofilm thickness, biofilm detachment rates, and intestinal colonization efficiency. These results suggest that V. cholerae is able to regulate its biofilm architecture by temporal induction of quorum-sensing systems.
霍乱弧菌是引发霍乱的病原体,它也能在水体储库中存活,可能是以生物膜的形式。群体感应通过HapR对霍乱弧菌生物膜形成起负调控作用,HapR的表达在高细胞密度时被诱导。在本研究中,我们发现生物膜中群体感应信号分子CAI-1的浓度高于浮游培养物中的浓度。通过测量hapR的表达和活性,我们发现生物膜相关细胞中群体感应的诱导发生得更早。我们进一步证明,hapR表达的时机对于生物膜厚度、生物膜脱离率和肠道定殖效率至关重要。这些结果表明,霍乱弧菌能够通过群体感应系统的适时诱导来调节其生物膜结构。