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Quorum sensing as a target for developing control strategies for the plant pathogen Pectobacterium

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Abstract

Quorum sensing is a regulatory mechanism that connects gene expression to cell density in bacteria. Amongst proteobacteria, numerous functions are regulated in this way, including pathogenicity in the Enterobacteriaceae genus Pectobacterium. In Pectobacterium, the signalling molecules involved in this regulatory process belong to the N-acyl-homoserine lactone class. Over the last 6 years, various studies have shown that these signal molecules could be degraded by other bacteria or by plant and animal cells, opening the path to innovative biocontrol strategies. This review explores the various determinants of pathogenicity in Pectobacterium and describes approaches that have been developed to quench the quorum-sensing-dependent pathogenicity in Pectobacterium. These approaches range from signal degradation by physicochemical constraints to the identification of signal-sensing inhibitors and from the identification of enzymes degrading acyl-homoserine lactones to the construction of transgenic plants tolerant to Pectobacterium.

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Abbreviations

3O,C6-HSL:

3-Oxo,hexanoyl-homoserine lactone

3O,C12-HSL:

3-Oxo,dodecanoyl-homoserine lactone

C4-HSL:

Butyroyl-homoserine lactone

C6-HSL:

Hexanoyl-homoserine lactone

C12-HSL:

Dodecanoyl-homoserine lactone

C14-HSL:

Tetradecanoyl-homoserine lactone

GABA:

γ-Aminobutyrate

GBL:

γ-Butyrolactone

GHB:

γ-Hydroxybutyrate

SSA:

Succinic semialdehyde

N-AHSL:

N-acyl-homoserine lactone

PCWME:

Plant-cell-wall-macerating enzymes

PON:

Paraoxonase

QS:

Quorum sensing

QQ:

quorum quenching

SAM:

S-adenosyl-methionine

TTSS:

Type III secretion system

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    Denis Faure & Yves Dessaux

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Faure, D., Dessaux, Y. Quorum sensing as a target for developing control strategies for the plant pathogen Pectobacterium . Eur J Plant Pathol 119, 353–365 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-007-9149-1

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