Daniel M. Cornforth
Combinatorial quorum sensing allows bacteria to resolve their social and physical environment
Cornforth, Daniel M.; Popat, Roman; McNally, Luke; Gurney, James; Scott-Phillips, Thomas C.; Ivens, Alasdair; Diggle, Stephen P.; Brown, Sam P.
Authors
Roman Popat
Luke McNally
James Gurney
Thomas C. Scott-Phillips
Alasdair Ivens
Stephen P. Diggle
Sam P. Brown
Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell–cell communication system that controls gene expression in many bacterial species, mediated by diffusible signal molecules. Although the intracellular regulatory mechanisms of QS are often well-understood, the functional roles of QS remain controversial. In particular, the use of multiple signals by many bacterial species poses a serious challenge to current functional theories. Here, we address this challenge by showing that bacteria can use multiple QS signals to infer both their social (density) and physical (mass-transfer) environment. Analytical and evolutionary simulation models show that the detection of, and response to, complex social/physical contrasts requires multiple signals with distinct half-lives and combinatorial (nonadditive) responses to signal concentrations. We test these predictions using the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and demonstrate significant differences in signal decay betweeallyn its two primary signal molecules, as well as diverse combinatorial responses to dual-signal inputs. QS is associated with the control of secreted factors, and we show that secretome genes are preferentially controlled by synergistic “AND-gate” responses to multiple signal inputs, ensuring the effective expression of secreted factors in high-density and low mass-transfer environments. Our results support a new functional hypothesis for the use of multiple signals and, more generally, show that bacteria are capable of combinatorial communication.
Citation
Cornforth, D. M., Popat, R., McNally, L., Gurney, J., Scott-Phillips, T. C., Ivens, A., …Brown, S. P. (2014). Combinatorial quorum sensing allows bacteria to resolve their social and physical environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(11), https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319175111
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Feb 5, 2014 |
Publication Date | Mar 5, 2014 |
Deposit Date | Aug 23, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Aug 23, 2016 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
Print ISSN | 0027-8424 |
Electronic ISSN | 1091-6490 |
Publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 111 |
Issue | 11 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319175111 |
Keywords | Diffusion Sensing, Bacterial Signaling, Efficiency Sensing, Collective Behavior, Bacterial Cooperation |
Public URL | https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/725729 |
Publisher URL | http://www.pnas.org/content/111/11/4280 |
Contract Date | Aug 23, 2016 |
Files
4280.full.pdf
(1.3 Mb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
Copyright information regarding this work can be found at the following address: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/end_user_agreement.pdf
Downloadable Citations
About Repository@Nottingham
Administrator e-mail: discovery-access-systems@nottingham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search