Quorum-sensing autoinducers resuscitate dormant Vibrio cholerae in environmental water samples.

ABSTRACT: Cholera epidemics have long been known to spread through water contaminated with human fecal material containing the toxigenic bacterium Vibrio cholerae. However, detection of V. cholerae in water is complicated by the existence of a dormant state in which the organism remains viable, but resists cultivation on routine bacteriological media. Growth in the mammalian intestine has been reported to trigger "resuscitation" of such dormant cells, and these studies have prompted the search for resuscitation factors. Although some positive reports have emerged from these investigations, the precise molecular signals that activate dormant V. cholerae have remained elusive. Quorum-sensing autoinducers are small molecules that ordinarily regulate bacterial gene expression in response to cell density

SUBMITTER: Bari SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3683778 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature