Li, Y., Clarke, J.E. orcid.org/0000-0003-1380-3833, O'Neill, A.J. orcid.org/0000-0003-3222-5493 et al. (2 more authors) (2023) An Engineered Escherichia coli Community for Studying Quorum Sensing. SynBio, 1 (2). pp. 144-157. ISSN 2674-0583
Abstract
In bacterial communities, quorum sensing (QS) is a process mediated via chemical signalling that individuals use to coordinate their collective phenotypes. It is closely associated with pathogenic traits such as virulence factor production and antibiotic resistance. In their natural habitats, bacteria live in small niches, forming intricate consortia, where the role of QS is little understood. This work aims to construct a tuneable, trackable, and reconfigurable model bacterial community for studying QS. To this end, three Escherichia coli fluorescent reporter strains were constructed based on the paradigm LuxI/LuxR QS system. The strains recreate the three major aspects of QS response: sensing (S), autoinducer production (P), and regulation (R). We found that the response of the S strain as a function of the N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (OHHL) concentration did not saturate and exhibited a concentration-dependent response (in the range 10−7 to 10−4 M). The P strain produced OHHL and showed the ability to activate the S response, while the R strain showed the ability to attenuate the response due to the expression of the lactonase AiiA. Monitoring the fluorescent signals of the strains permits tracking the activation and attenuation activities of the LuxI/LuxR QS system. Future studies can now also benefit from this straightforward subcloning strategy to study other QS systems.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | quorum sensing; model bacterial community; biosensor; quorum sensing tracking; fluorescent tracking |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Food Science and Nutrition (Leeds) > FSN Chemistry and Biochemistry (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jul 2023 11:07 |
Last Modified: | 17 Jan 2025 14:27 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/synbio1020010 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201345 |