Papers for Journal Club

Papers for Journal Club Higgins DA, Pomianek ME, Kraml CM, Taylor RK, Semmelhack MF, Bassler BL. The major Vibrio cholerae autoinducer and its role in virulence factor production. (2007) 6;450(7171): 883-6.

In this paper, the structure of the V. cholerae autoinducer CAI-1 was determined, as described in the lecture. In addition, synthetic CAI-1 was produced, as well as similar molecules, all of which were tested for their effectiveness as quorum sensing molecules in V. cholerae. Exogenous addition of CAI-1 to cultures of V. cholerae resulted in decreased expression of one of the toxin co-regulated pilis genes (tcpA), demonstrating a critical role for quorum sensing in pathogenesis. Waters CM, Lu W, Rabinowitz JD, Bassler BL. Quorum sensing controls biofilm formation in Vibrio cholerae through modulation of cyclic di-GMP levels and repression of vpsT. (2008). J Bacteriol. 190(7): 2527-36.

This paper examines the role of cyclic di-GMP, a cytoplasmic small molecule second messenger, in quorum sensing and in biofilm production in V. cholerae. The data show that quorum sensing activates expression of a set of genes that alter cyclic di-GMP levels, which in turn, decreases biofilm production. This finding connects two chemical-sensing systems resulting in the control of expression of genes required for V. cholerae pathogenesis.

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