Quorum Regulated Resistance of Vibrio cholerae against Environmental Bacteriophages.

ABSTRACT: Predation by bacteriophages can significantly influence the population structure of bacterial communities. Vibrio cholerae the causative agent of cholera epidemics interacts with numerous phages in the aquatic ecosystem, and in the intestine of cholera patients. Seasonal epidemics of cholera reportedly collapse due to predation of the pathogen by phages. However, it is not clear how sufficient number of the bacteria survive to seed the environment in the subsequent epidemic season. We found that bacterial cell density-dependent gene expression termed "quorum sensing" which is regulated by signal molecules called autoinducers (AIs) can protect V. cholerae against predatory phages. V. cholerae mutant strains carrying inactivated AI synthase genes were significantly more susceptible to multip

SUBMITTER: Hoque MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5124996 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature