Abstract
The presence and diversity of acyl homoserine lactone (AHL)-producers in an urban river biofilm were investigated during 60-day biofilm formation. AHL biosensors detected the presence of AHL-producers in 1–60-day river biofilms. Screening for AHL-producers resulted in 17 Aeromonas spp., 3 Pseudomonas spp., 3 Ensifer spp., and 1 Acinetobacter sp. Among these isolates, six of them were closely related to Acinetobacter tjernbergiae, Aeromonas allosaccharophila, Aeromonas aquariorum, Aeromonas jandaei, Pseudomonas panipatensis, and Ensifer adhaerens and represented novel AHL-producing species. Thin layer chromatography revealed that C4-homoserine lactone was prevailing in Aeromonas spp., whereas C6- and C8-homoserine lactones and their derivatives were prevailing in other strains. Using degenerate primers, novel AHL synthetase genes from the three Ensifer spp. were successfully amplified. This study reports for the first time the diversity of AHL-producers from a river biofilm and the variety of novel AHL synthetase genes in Ensifer group.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Battin TJ, Sloan WT, Kjelleberg S, Daims H, Head IM, Curtis TP, Eberl L (2007) Microbial landscapes: new paths to biofilm research. Nat Rev Microbiol 5:76–81
Casida LE (1982) Ensifer Adhaerens gen. nov., sp. nov.: a bacterial predator of bacteria in soil. Int J Syst Bacteriol 32:339–345
Chan KG, Puthucheary SD, Chan XY, Yin WF, Wong CS, Too WS, Chua KH (2011) Quorum sensing in Aeromonas species isolated from patients in Malaysia. Curr Microbiol 62:167–172
Decho AW, Norman RS, Visscher PT (2010) Quorum sensing in natural environments: emerging views from microbial mats. Trends Microbiol 18:73–80
Gonzalez RH, Dijkshoorn L, Van den Barselaar M, Nudel C (2009) Quorum sensing signal profile of Acinetobacter strains from nosocomial and environmental sources. Rev Argent Microbiol 41:73–78
Greenberg EP (2000) Acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing in bacteria. J Microbiol 38:117–121
Huang YL, Dobretsov S, Ki JS, Yang LH, Qian PY (2007) Presence of acyl-homoserine lactone in subtidal biofilm and the implication in larval behavioral response in the polychaete Hydroides elegans. Microb Ecol 54:384–392
Huang YL, Ki JS, Case R, Qian PY (2008) Diversity and acyl-homoserine lactone production among subtidal biofilm forming bacteria. Aquat Microb Ecol 52:185–193
Huang YL, Ki JS, Lee OO, Qian PY (2009) Evidence for the dynamics of acyl homoserine lactone and AHL-producing bacteria during subtidal biofilm formation. ISME J 3:296–304
Huang YL, Li M, Yu ZL, Qian PY (2011) Correlation between pigmentation and larval settlement deterrence by Pseudoalteromonas sp sf57. Biofouling 27:287–293
Khajanchi BK, Fadl AA, Borchardt MA, Berg RL, Horneman AJ, Stemper ME, Joseph SW, Moyer NP, Sha J, Chopral AK (2010) Distribution of virulence factors and molecular fingerprinting of Aeromonas species isolates from water and clinical samples: suggestive evidence of water-to-human transmission. Appl Environ Microbiol 76:2313–2325
McLean RJ, Whiteley M, Stickler DJ, Fuqua WC (1997) Evidence of autoinducer activity in naturally occurring biofilms. FEMS Microbiol Lett 154:259–263
Mohamed NM, Cicirelli EM, Kan J, Chen F, Fuqua C, Hill RT (2008) Diversity and quorum-sensing signal production of Proteobacteria associated with marine sponges. Environ Microbiol 10:75–86
Taylor MW, Schupp PJ, Baillie HJ, Charlton TS, de Nys R, Kjelleberg S, Steinberg PD (2004) Evidence for acyl homoserine lactone signal production in bacteria associated with marine sponges. Appl Environ Microbiol 70:4387–4389
Teplitski M, Eberhard A, Gronquist MR, Gao M, Robinson JB, Bauer WD (2003) Chemical identification of N-acyl homoserine lactone quorum-sensing signals produced by Sinorhizobium meliloti strains in defined medium. Arch Microbiol 180:494–497
Venturi V (2006) Regulation of quorum sensing in Pseudomonas. FEMS Microbiol Rev 30:274–291
Visick KL, Fuqua C (2005) Decoding microbial chatter: cell–cell communication in bacteria. J Bacteriol 187:5507–5519
Vlamakis HC, Kolter R (2005) Thieves, assassins and spies of the microbial world. Nat Cell Biol 7:933–934
Young JM (2003) The genus name Ensifer Casida 1982 takes priority over Sinorhizobium Chen et al. 1988, and Sinorhizobium morelense Wang et al. 2002 is a later synonym of Ensifer adhaerens Casida 1982. Is the combination ‘Sinorhizobium adhaerens’ (Casida 1982) Willems et al. 2003 legitimate? Request for an opinion. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 53:2107–2110
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Professor Lizhong Zhu and Professor Baolliang Chen for their technical support and constructive discussion during the experiments. This work was supported by NNSFC 21137003, 21077090, and NSFZJ Y5100048 to Yili Huang.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Shuang-Jiang Liu.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, Y., Zhang, J., Yu, Z. et al. Isolation and characterization of acyl homoserine lactone–producing bacteria during an urban river biofilm formation. Arch Microbiol 194, 1043–1048 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-012-0849-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-012-0849-3