Quorum Sensing (QS), or bacterial cell-to-cell communication, is a finely-tuned mechanism that regulates gene expression on a population density-dependent manner through the production, secretion and reception of extracellular signaling molecules termed autoinducers (AIs). Given that QS plays an important role in bacterial biofilm formation and virulence factor production in many pathogenic strains, QS disruptors have become a hot topic in current antimicrobial research. There are several reporter strains exhibiting QS-regulated phenotypes that have been engineered for the identification of QS inhibitors, including, for example, pigment production (González and Keshavan, 2006; Steindler and Venturi, 2007), gfp, lacZ or lux reporter gene fusions (González and Keshavan, 2006; Steindler and Venturi, 2007), or lethal gene fusions downstream QS-controlled promoters (Weiland-Bräuer et al., 2015). With three parallel QS circuits, the bioluminescent marine bacterium Vibrio campbellii (formerly harveyi, Lin et al., 2010) constitutes a complex Gram-negative model for which an extensive body of knowledge exists, including an array of mutant biosensors. In V. campbellii, bioluminescence is regulated by QS. However, bioluminescence is the result of complex biochemical networks that converge with cell respiration and fatty acid metabolism. It is also an energy-demanding reaction that strongly depends on the overall metabolic state of the bacterium, consuming up to 1/5 of the cell resources (Munn, 2011). Thus, disruption of QS-controlled phenotypes might be the result of toxic side effects or interference with the above-mentioned biochemical pathways rather than QS signaling. Therefore, adequate control experiments should be included. The protocol described herein provides a method and workflow for the identification of putative QS-disrupting compounds in Vibrio. It can also be easily adapted for other QS studies (e.g., detection of AI molecules).

Quorum Sensing (群体感应)

Vibrio (弧菌)

Bioluminescence (生物发光)

Inhibitors (抑制剂)

Screening (筛选)