Vibrio fischeri exists in a symbiotic relationship with the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, where the squid provides a home for the bacteria, and the bacteria in turn provide camouflage that helps protect the squid from night-time predators. Like other gram-negative organisms, V. fischeri expresses lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on its cell surface. The structure of the O-antigen and the c...

Vibrio fischeri is the sole species colonizing the light-emitting organ of the Hawaiian squid, Euprymna scolopes. Upon entering the nascent light organ of a newly hatched juvenile squid, the bacteria undergo morphological and physiological changes that include the loss of flagellation and the induction of bioluminescence. These and other events reveal a pattern of genetic regulation that is a r...

Biofilm formation by Vibrio fischeri is a complex process involving multiple regulators, including the sensor kinase (SK) RscS and the response regulator (RR) SypG, which control the symbiosis polysaccharide (syp) locus. To identify other regulators of biofilm formation in V. fischeri, we screened a transposon library for mutants defective in wrinkled colony formation. We identified LuxQ as a p...

Spaceflight imposes numerous adaptive challenges for terrestrial life. The reduction in gravity, or microgravity, represents a novel environment that can disrupt homeostasis of many physiological processes. Additionally, it is becoming increasingly clear that an organism's microbiome is critical for host health and examining its resiliency in microgravity represents a new frontier for space bio...

The luminescence (lux) operon (luxICDABEG) of the symbiotic bacterium Vibrio fischeri is regulated by the transcriptional activator LuxR and two acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) autoinducers (the luxI-dependent 3-oxo-hexanoyl-HSL [3-oxo-C6-HSL] and the ainS-dependent octanoyl-HSL [C8-HSL]) in a population density-responsive manner called quorum sensing. To identify quorum-sensing-regulated (Q...

Insertion of lux genes, encoding for bioluminescence in naturally bioluminescent marine bacteria, into the genome of Pseudomonas fluorescens resulted in a bioluminescent strain of this terrestrial bacterium. The lux-marked bacterium was used to toxicity test the chlorobenzene series. By correlating chlorobenzenes 50% effective concentration (EC50) values against physiochemical parameters, the p...

While most animal-bacterial symbioses are reestablished each successive generation, the mechanisms by which the host and its potential microbial partners ensure tissue colonization remain largely undescribed. We used the model association between the squid Euprymna scolopes and Vibrio fischeri to examine this process. This light organ symbiosis is initiated when V. fischeri cells present in the...