• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Kinetic constraints on acylated homoserine lactone-based quorum sensing in marine environments

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    a054p127.pdf (210.8Kb)
    Date
    2009-02-04
    Author
    Hmelo, Laura R.  Concept link
    Van Mooy, Benjamin A. S.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4536
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01261
    DOI
    10.3354/ame01261
    Keyword
     Quorum sensing; Quorum quenching; Marine bacteria; Acylated homoserine lactone; HPLC; Mass spectrometry; Degradation 
    Abstract
    Quorum sensing (QS) via acylated homoserine lactones (AHLs) was discovered in the ocean, yet AHLs are expected to be very short-lived at seawater pH due to rapid abiotic degradation. Quorum quenching, the enzymatic degradation of AHLs, is also likely. To better understand the potential for QS to regulate behaviors of marine bacteria, we investigated the degradation of a variety of AHL molecules in several types of seawater media. We did this by incubating AHLs and tracking their concentration using HPLC/electrospray-ionization mass-spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS). AHL concentrations decreased with time, and degradation rate coefficients were calculated by applying a first-order rate law. The rate of abiotic degradation showed strong dependence on acyl chain length and the presence of 3-oxo substitutions on the acyl chain. We found that the rate of abiotic degradation of AHLs in artificial seawater was much slower than that predicted by an oft-cited equation for non-marine media that takes only pH into account. However, AHLs degraded more rapidly in natural seawater than in artificial seawater, an observation we found to be due to quorum quenching enzyme activity. By applying calculated degradation rates in a simple steady-state calculation, we suggest that despite the observed quorum quenching activity, AHLs are likely to be viable signals in organic particles and in other microbial ‘hotpsots’ in marine environments.
    Description
    Author Posting. © Inter-Research, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of Inter-Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Aquatic Microbial Ecology 54 (2009): 127-133, doi:10.3354/ame01261.
    Collections
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    Suggested Citation
    Aquatic Microbial Ecology 54 (2009): 127-133
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      The quorum-sensing regulation of Vibrio fischeri : novel components of the autoinducer/LuxR regulatory circuit 

      Callahan, Sean M. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1999-06)
      In the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri two intercellular homoserine-Iactone signal molecules (luxI-dependent 30C6-HSL and the ainS-dependent C8-HSL) and the transcriptional activator LuxR regulate the luminescence system ...
    • Thumbnail

      Evidence for quorum sensing and differential metabolite production by a marine bacterium in response to DMSP 

      Johnson, Winifred M.; Kido Soule, Melissa C.; Kujawinski, Elizabeth B. (Nature Publishing Group, 2016-02-16)
      Microbes, the foundation of the marine foodweb, do not function in isolation, but rather rely on molecular level interactions among species to thrive. Although certain types of interactions between autotrophic and heterotrophic ...
    • Thumbnail

      Bacterial quorum-sensing signal arrests phytoplankton cell division and impacts virus-induced mortality 

      Pollara, Scott B.; Becker, Jamie W.; Nunn, Brook L.; Boiteau, Rene M.; Repeta, Daniel J.; Mudge, Miranda C.; Downing, Grayton; Chase, Davis; Harvey, Elizabeth L.; Whalen, Kristen E. (American Society for Microbiology, 2021-05-12)
      Interactions between phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria fundamentally shape marine ecosystems by controlling primary production, structuring marine food webs, mediating carbon export, and influencing global climate. ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo