Department of Microbiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA.
J Bacteriol. 2014 Apr;196(7):1412-24. doi: 10.1128/JB.01405-13. Epub 2014 Jan 24.
Burkholderia thailandensis contains three acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing circuits and has two additional LuxR homologs. To identify B. thailandensis quorum sensing-controlled genes, we carried out transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses of quorum sensing mutants and their parent. The analyses were grounded in the fact that we identified genes coding for factors shown previously to be regulated by quorum sensing among a larger set of quorum-controlled genes. We also found that genes coding for contact-dependent inhibition were induced by quorum sensing and confirmed that specific quorum sensing mutants had a contact-dependent inhibition defect. Additional quorum-controlled genes included those for the production of numerous secondary metabolites, an uncharacterized exopolysaccharide, and a predicted chitin-binding protein. This study provides insights into the roles of the three quorum sensing circuits in the saprophytic lifestyle of B. thailandensis, and it provides a foundation on which to build an understanding of the roles of quorum sensing in the biology of B. thailandensis and the closely related pathogenic Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei.
鲍氏不动杆菌包含三个酰基高丝氨酸内酯群体感应回路，并有两个额外的 LuxR 同源物。为了鉴定鲍氏不动杆菌群体感应控制的基因，我们对群体感应突变体及其亲本进行了转录组测序（RNA-seq）分析。这些分析的基础是，我们在一组更大的群体感应控制基因中鉴定出了先前被证明受群体感应调节的基因。我们还发现，编码接触抑制因子的基因被群体感应诱导，并证实了特定的群体感应突变体存在接触抑制缺陷。其他群体感应控制的基因包括许多次生代谢产物、一种未被表征的胞外多糖和一种预测的几丁质结合蛋白的产生。这项研究深入了解了三个群体感应回路在鲍氏不动杆菌腐生生活方式中的作用，并为理解群体感应在鲍氏不动杆菌及其密切相关的致病性类鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌和马鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌生物学中的作用奠定了基础。
