Ronald Pamela C
Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center, University of California at Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA.
Discov Med. 2011 Dec;12(67):461-70.
Control of Gram-negative bacterial infections of plants and animals remains a major challenge because conventional approaches are often not sufficient to eradicate these infections. One major reason for their persistence seems to be the capability of the bacteria to grow within biofilms that protect them from adverse environmental factors. Quorum sensing (QS) plays an important role in the formation of biofilms. In QS, small molecules serve as signals to recognize bacterial cell population size, leading to changes in expression of specific genes when a signal has accumulated to some threshold concentration. The small protein Ax21 (Activator of XA21-mediated immunity), serves as a QS factor that regulates biofilm formation and virulence in the Gram-negative bacterium, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Knowledge of small protein-mediated QS in Gram-negative bacteria can be used to develop new methods to control persistent Gram-negative infections.
控制动植物的革兰氏阴性菌感染仍然是一项重大挑战，因为传统方法往往不足以根除这些感染。它们持续存在的一个主要原因似乎是细菌在生物膜内生长的能力，生物膜可保护它们免受不利环境因素的影响。群体感应（QS）在生物膜形成中起重要作用。在群体感应中，小分子作为信号来识别细菌细胞群体大小，当信号积累到一定阈值浓度时，会导致特定基因表达发生变化。小蛋白Ax21（XA21介导的免疫激活剂）作为一种群体感应因子，调节革兰氏阴性菌水稻白叶枯病菌中的生物膜形成和毒力。了解革兰氏阴性菌中小蛋白介导的群体感应可用于开发控制持续性革兰氏阴性菌感染的新方法。
