Dynamics of AHL mediated quorum sensing under flow and non-flow conditions

Quorum sensing (QS) describes the capability of microbes to communicate with each other by the aid of small molecules. Here we investigate the dynamics of QS-regulated gene expression induced by acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) in Pseudomonas putida IsoF containing a green fluorescent protein-based AH...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical biology 2012-04, Vol.9 (2), p.026007-026007
Main Authors: Meyer, Andrea, Megerle, Judith A, Kuttler, Christina, Müller, Johannes, Aguilar, Claudio, Eberl, Leo, Hense, Burkhard A, Rädler, Joachim O
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acyl-Butyrolactones - metabolism
autoinducer
cell-to-cell variation
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
gene expression kinetics
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Green Fluorescent Proteins - metabolism
Ligases - metabolism
Models, Biological
Pseudomonas putida - metabolism
quantitative model
Quorum Sensing
single-cell analysis
Transcriptional Activation
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Summary:Quorum sensing (QS) describes the capability of microbes to communicate with each other by the aid of small molecules. Here we investigate the dynamics of QS-regulated gene expression induced by acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) in Pseudomonas putida IsoF containing a green fluorescent protein-based AHL reporter. The fluorescence time course of individual colonies is monitored following the external addition of a defined AHL concentration to cells which had previously reached the QS-inactive state in AHL-free medium. Using a microfluidic setup the experiment is performed both under flow and non-flow conditions. We find that without supplying external AHL gene expression is induced without flow while flow suppresses the induction. Both without and with flow, at a low AHL concentration the fluorescence onset is significantly delayed while fluorescence starts to increase directly upon the addition of AHL at a high concentration. The differences between no flow and flow can be accounted for using a two-compartment model. This indicates AHL accumulation in a volume which is not affected by the flow. The experiments furthermore show significant cell-to-cell and colony-to-colony variability which is discussed in the context of a compartmentalized QS mechanism.
ISSN:1478-3975
1478-3967
1478-3975
DOI:10.1088/1478-3975/9/2/026007