The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses intercellular signals to control the density-dependent expression of many virulence factors. The las and rhl quorum-sensing systems function, respectively, through the autoinducers N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone and N-butyryl-L-homoserine lactone (C(4)-HSL), which are known to positively regulate the transcription of the elastase-...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous, Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that can cause disease in various sites within the human body. This bacterium is a major source of nosocomial infections that are often difficult to treat due to high intrinsic antibiotic resistance and coordinated virulence factor production. P. aeruginosa utilizes three cell-to-cell signaling systems to regulate nume...

A set of 30 mutants exhibiting reduced production of the phenazine poison pyocyanin were isolated following transposon mutagenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. The mutants could be subdivided into those with defects in the primary phenazine biosynthetic pathway and those with more pleiotropic defects. The largest set of pleiotropic mutations blocked the production of the extracellular Pseudo...

Protein Quaternary Structures (PQS) represent assemblies of protein chains, which are stable in a particular environment. Biological function of many proteins is closely associated with the ability to aggregation or changing the oligomeric state in general. Therefore, PQS are often viewed as Biological Units. Knowing PQS may help to better understand the role of a particular protein in the mach...

A bacterial strain, which based on the sequences of its 16S rRNA, gyrB, catA, and qsdA genes, was identified as a Rhodococcus sp. closely related to Rhodococcus erythropolis, was isolated from soil by enrichment on the Pseudomonas quinolone signal [PQS; 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolone], a quorum sensing signal employed by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The isolate, termed...

The Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS) is an important quorum-sensing molecule in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that also mediates its own packaging and transport by stimulating outer membrane vesicle (OMV) formation. Because OMVs have been implicated in many virulence-associated behaviors, it is critical that we understand how they are formed. Our group proposed the bilayer-couple model for OMV bioge...

UNLABELLED Gram-negative bacteria naturally produce outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) that arise through bulging and pinching off of the outer membrane. OMVs have several biological functions for bacteria, most notably as trafficking vehicles for toxins, antimicrobials, and signaling molecules. While their biological roles are now appreciated, the mechanism of OMV formation has not been fully eluc...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative bacterium that causes serious infections in immunocompromised individuals and cystic fibrosis patients. This opportunistic pathogen controls many of its virulence factors and cellular functions through the activity of three cell-to-cell signals, N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone, N-butyryl-L-homoserine lactone, and the Pseudomonas quinolone signa...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that controls numerous virulence factors through intercellular signals. This bacterium has two quorum-sensing systems (las and rhl), which act through the intercellular signals N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C(12)-HSL) and N-butyryl-l-homoserine lactone (C(4)-HSL), respectively. P. aeruginosa also produces a third intercellula...

The appearance of antibiotic resistance requires novel therapeutic strategies. One approach is to selectively attenuate bacterial pathogenicity by interfering with bacterial cell-to-cell communication known as quorum sensing. The PQS quorum sensing system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa employs as signal molecule the Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS; 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4-(1H)-quinolone), a key contr...