Biochemistry (Washington) 2010-07-13

Establishing a quantitative definition of quorum sensing provides insight into the information content of the autoinducer signals in Vibrio harveyi and Escherichia coli.

Jessica R Gooding, Amanda L May, Kathryn R Hilliard, Shawn R Campagna

Index: Biochemistry 49(27) , 5621-3, (2010)

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Abstract

Extracellular autoinducer concentrations in cultures of Vibrio harveyi and Escherichia coli were monitored by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to test whether a quantitative definition of quorum sensing could help decipher the information content of these signals. Although V. harveyi was able to keep the autoinducer-2 to cell number ratio constant, the ratio of signal to cell number for V. harveyi autoinducer-1 and E. coli autoinducer-2 varied as the cultures grew. These data indicate that V. harveyi uses autoinducer-2 for quorum sensing, while the other molecules may be used to transmit different information or are influenced by metabolic noise.