Bacterial populations coexisting in the phyllosphere niche have important effects on plant health. Quorum sensing (QS) allows bacteria to communicate via diffusible signal molecules, but QS-dependent behaviors in phyllosphere bacterial populations are poorly understood. We investigate the dense and diverse N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-producing phyllosphere bacteria living on tobacco leaf su...

Along with their cognate acyl-homoserine lactone signals, the quorum sensing regulators LasR and RhlR control the expression of hundreds of genes in the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This extensive, overlapping regulatory network affords the opportunity to systematically investigate the sequence requirements and specificity determinants of large families of target promote...

We have investigated the quorum sensing control in Aeromonas veronii MTCC 3249, originally isolated as A. culicicola from the midgut of Culex quinquefasciatus. Based on biosensor assays, the bacterium showed constant production of multiple acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) with increasing cell-density. The luxRI gene homologs, acuR (A. culicicola transcriptional Regulator) and acuI (A. culicicola...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum control of gene expression involves three LuxR-type signal receptors LasR, RhlR, and QscR that respond to the LasI- and RhlI-generated acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) signals 3OC12-HSL and C4-HSL. We found that a LasR-RhlR-QscR triple mutant responds to acyl-HSLs by regulating at least 37 genes. LuxR homolog-independent activation of the representative genes ant...

Quorum sensing is a signalling mechanism that controls diverse biological functions, including virulence, via N-acylhomoserine lactone (AHL) signal molecules in Gram-negative bacteria. With the aim of isolating strains or enzymes capable of blocking quorum sensing by inactivating AHL, bacteria were screened for AHL degradation by their ability to utilize N-3-oxohexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (OH...

Erwinia chrysanthemi pv. zeae is one of the Erwinia chrysanthemi pathovars that infects on both dicotyledons and monocotyledons. However, little is known about the molecular basis and regulatory mechanisms of its virulence. By using a transposon mutagenesis approach, we cloned the genes coding for an E. chrysanthemi pv. zeae synthase of acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum-sensing signals (expI...

The Vibrio fischeri LuxR protein is the founding member of a family of acyl-homoserine lactone-responsive quorum-sensing transcription factors. Previous genetic evidence indicates that in the presence of its quorum-sensing signal, N-(3-oxohexanoyl) homoserine lactone (3OC6-HSL), LuxR binds to lux box DNA within the promoter region of the luxI gene and activates transcription of the luxICDABEG l...

N-Acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) are used by a wide variety of bacteria for cell-cell communication in "quorum-sensing". These compounds are derived from L-homoserine lactone and a fatty acid, which varies in chain-length, degree of saturation, and the presence or absence of an oxygen atom at C-3. In this study we describe for the first time the occurrence of acyl chains carrying a methyl branc...