Quorum sensing enhancement of the stress response promotes resistance to quorum quenching and prevents social cheating.

ABSTRACT: Quorum sensing (QS) coordinates the expression of virulence factors and allows bacteria to counteract the immune response, partly by increasing their tolerance to the oxidative stress generated by immune cells. Despite the recognized role of QS in enhancing the oxidative stress response, the consequences of this relationship for the bacterial ecology remain unexplored. Here we demonstrate that QS increases resistance also to osmotic, thermal and heavy metal stress. Furthermore a QS-deficient lasR rhlR mutant is unable to exert a robust response against H2O2 as it has less induction of catalase and NADPH-producing dehydrogenases. Phenotypic microarrays revealed that the mutant is very sensitive to several toxic compounds. As the anti-oxidative enzymes are private goods not shared by the pop

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Contreras R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4274435 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature