Wang Ruojun, Ding Wei, Long Lexin, Lan Yi, Tong Haoya, Saha Subhasish, Wong Yue Him, Sun Jin, Li Yongxin, Zhang Weipeng, Qian Pei-Yuan
Department of Ocean Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Branch of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Front Microbiol. 2020 Nov 13;11:571400. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.571400. eCollection 2020.
Microbes respond to environmental stimuli through complicated signal transduction systems. In microbial biofilms, because of complex multiple species interactions, signals transduction systems are of an even higher complexity. Here, we performed a signal-molecule-treatment experiment to study the role of different signal molecules, including N-hexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C6-HSL), N-dodecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C12-HSL), quinolone signal (PQS), and cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP), in the development of marine biofilms. Comparative metagenomics suggested a distinctive influence of these molecules on the microbial structure and function of multi-species biofilm communities in its developing stage. The PQS-treated biofilms shared the least similarity with the control and initial biofilms. The role of PQS in biofilm development was further explored experimentally with the strain sp. HKB8 isolated from marine biofilms. Comparative transcriptomic analysis showed that 314 genes, such as those related to signal transduction and biofilm formation, were differentially expressed in the untreated and PQS-treated sp. HKB8 biofilms. Our study demonstrated the different roles of signal molecules in marine biofilm development. In particular, the PQS-based signal transduction system, which is frequently detected in marine biofilms, may play an important role in regulating microbe-microbe interactions and the assemblage of biofilm communities.
微生物通过复杂的信号转导系统对环境刺激做出反应。在微生物生物膜中，由于存在复杂的多物种相互作用，信号转导系统的复杂性更高。在此，我们进行了一项信号分子处理实验，以研究不同信号分子，包括N-己酰基-L-高丝氨酸内酯（C6-HSL）、N-十二酰基-L-高丝氨酸内酯（C12-HSL）、喹诺酮信号（PQS）和环二鸟苷酸（c-di-GMP），在海洋生物膜形成过程中的作用。比较宏基因组学表明，这些分子对多物种生物膜群落发育阶段的微生物结构和功能有显著影响。经PQS处理的生物膜与对照生物膜和初始生物膜的相似度最低。我们利用从海洋生物膜中分离出的菌株sp. HKB8，通过实验进一步探究了PQS在生物膜形成中的作用。比较转录组分析表明，在未经处理和经PQS处理的sp. HKB8生物膜中，314个基因，如与信号转导和生物膜形成相关的基因，存在差异表达。我们的研究证明了信号分子在海洋生物膜形成过程中的不同作用。特别是，在海洋生物膜中经常检测到的基于PQS的信号转导系统，可能在调节微生物-微生物相互作用和生物膜群落的组装中发挥重要作用。
