Heterogeneous response to a quorum-sensing signal in the luminescence of individual Vibrio fischeri.

ABSTRACT: The marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri regulates its bioluminescence through a quorum sensing mechanism: the bacterium releases diffusible small molecules (autoinducers) that accumulate in the environment as the population density increases. This accumulation of autoinducer (AI) eventually activates transcriptional regulators for bioluminescence as well as host colonization behaviors. Although V. fischeri quorum sensing has been extensively characterized in bulk populations, far less is known about how it performs at the level of the individual cell, where biochemical noise is likely to limit the precision of luminescence regulation. We have measured the time-dependence and AI-dependence of light production by individual V. fischeri cells that are immobilized in a perfusion chamber and suppl

SUBMITTER: Perez PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2982848 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature