Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team of Sociomicrobiology Basic Science and Frontier Technology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, People's Republic of China.
Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, Department of Plant Pathology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, People's Republic of China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 15;9(1):10190. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46651-5.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing (QS) regulates expression of dozens of genes in a cell density-dependent manner. Many QS-regulated genes code for production of extracellular factors, "public goods" that can benefit the entire population. This cooperation encourages individuals to cheat by using but not producing public goods. QS also controls expression of a limited number of genes encoding "private" cellular enzymes like Nuh, an enzyme involved in adenosine catabolism. Growth of P. aeruginosa on casein requires QS-regulated production of an extracellular protease and is an example of cooperative behavior. When P. aeruginosa is transferred daily on casein, QS mutants emerge. These cheaters have mutations in lasR, which encodes the primary QS transcription factor. When growth is on casein and adenosine, cheater emergence is constrained. Here, we report the dynamics of LasR mutant invasion during growth on casein or casein plus adenosine. We show that LasR mutants have the greatest advantage during early to mid-logarithmic growth on casein. Addition of adenosine to casein medium constrains cheaters throughout growth. Our data support the view that co-regulation of the public protease and the private nucleosidase by QS stabilizes cooperation, and the data are not consistent with other proposed alternate hypotheses.
铜绿假单胞菌群体感应 (QS) 以细胞密度依赖的方式调节数十个基因的表达。许多 QS 调节的基因编码产生细胞外因子,这些因子是“公共物品”,可以使整个群体受益。这种合作鼓励个体通过使用但不产生公共物品来作弊。QS 还控制着少数编码“私人”细胞酶的基因的表达,如参与腺苷分解代谢的 Nuh 酶。铜绿假单胞菌在酪蛋白上的生长需要 QS 调节产生细胞外蛋白酶,这是一种合作行为的例子。当铜绿假单胞菌每天在酪蛋白上转移时,就会出现 QS 突变体。这些骗子在 lasR 中有突变,lasR 编码主要的 QS 转录因子。当在酪蛋白和腺苷上生长时,骗子的出现受到限制。在这里,我们报告了在酪蛋白或酪蛋白加腺苷上生长时 LasR 突变体入侵的动态。我们表明,LasR 突变体在酪蛋白上对数中期到中期的早期生长中具有最大的优势。在酪蛋白培养基中添加腺苷会在整个生长过程中限制骗子的生长。我们的数据支持这样一种观点,即 QS 对公共蛋白酶和私人核苷酶的共同调节稳定了合作,并且数据与其他提出的替代假设不一致。