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Quorum sensing in halophilic bacteria: detection of N-acyl-homoserine lactones in the exopolysaccharide-producing species of Halomonas

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Abstract

Some members of the moderately halophilic genus Halomonas, such as H. eurihalina, H. maura, H. ventosae and H. anticariensis, produce exopolysaccharides with applications in many industrial fields. We report here that these four species also produce autoinducer molecules that are involved in the cell-to-cell signaling process known as quorum sensing. By using the N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) indicator strains Agrobacterium tumefaciens NTL4 (pZRL4) and Chromobacterium violaceum CV026, we discovered that all the Halomonas strains examined synthesize detectable AHL signal molecules. The synthesis of these compounds was growth-phase dependent and maximal activity was reached during the late exponential to stationary phases. One of these AHLs seems to be synthesized only in the stationary phase. Some of the AHLs produced by H. anticariens FP35T were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry as N-butanoyl homoserine lactone (C4-HL), N-hexanoyl homoserine lactone (C6-HL), N-octanoyl homoserine lactone (C8-HL) and N-dodecanoyl homoserine lactone (C12-HL). This study suggests that quorum sensing may also play an important role in extreme environments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Victoria Béjar for her comments and for providing the Halomonas strains. We also thank the members of Dr. González’s laboratory and Carolyn Eberhard for their helpful discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by National Science Foundation grant MCB-9733532 to J.E.G., the Texas Advanced Research Program under grant 009741-0022-2001 to J.E.G. and the Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica, Ministerio Español de Ciencia y Tecnología under Grant BIO2000-1519 to V. B. A.E. thanks S. Winans for hospitality and partial support through NIH grant #GM042893-14. I.L. received a postdoctoral grant from the Scientific Foundation Ramón Areces.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75083-0688, USA

    Inmaculada Llamas & Juan E. González

  2. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, Spain

    Emilia Quesada & Maria José Martínez-Cánovas

  3. Department of Chemistry, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY, 13045, USA

    Matthew Gronquist

  4. Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Anatol Eberhard

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  1. Inmaculada Llamas
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  2. Emilia Quesada
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  3. Maria José Martínez-Cánovas
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  4. Matthew Gronquist
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  5. Anatol Eberhard
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  6. Juan E. González
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Correspondence to Juan E. González.

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Communicated by W.D. Grant

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Llamas, I., Quesada, E., Martínez-Cánovas, M.J. et al. Quorum sensing in halophilic bacteria: detection of N-acyl-homoserine lactones in the exopolysaccharide-producing species of Halomonas. Extremophiles 9, 333–341 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-005-0448-1

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