Distinct sensory pathways in Vibrio cholerae El Tor and classical biotypes modulate cyclic dimeric GMP levels to control biofilm formation.

ABSTRACT: Quorum sensing (QS), or cell-cell communication in bacteria, is achieved through the production and subsequent response to the accumulation of extracellular signal molecules called autoinducers (AIs). To identify AI-regulated target genes in Vibrio cholerae El Tor (V. cholerae(El)), the strain responsible for the current cholera pandemic, luciferase expression was assayed in an AI(-) strain carrying a random lux transcriptional reporter library in the presence and absence of exogenously added AIs. Twenty-three genes were identified and shown to require the QS transcription factor, HapR, for their regulation. Several of the QS-dependent target genes, annotated as encoding hypothetical proteins, in fact encode HD-GYP proteins, phosphodiesterases that degrade the intracellular second messenge

SUBMITTER: Hammer BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2612459 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature