Resilience of bacterial quorum sensing against fluid flow

Emge, Philippe; Moeller, Jens; Jang, Hongchul; Rusconi, Roberto; Yawata, Yutaka; Stocker, Roman; Vogel, Viola

doi:10.1038/srep33115

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…5b) would have been QS-induced, independent of the local cell density. This could lead to detrimental impacts on a microbial population, unless there are other counteracting mechanisms such as differential QS induction sensitivity to signal concentration even in within a clonal population [25] or biofilm formation modifying local transport characteristics [39]. Future investigations should explicitly examine the evolutionary consequences of QS strategies in spatially heterogeneous environments under advective-diffusion-reaction dynamics.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mathematical investigation of microbial quorum sensing under various flow conditions

Jung¹,

Meile

2020

Preprint

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10Microorganisms efficiently coordinate phenotype expressions through a decision-making 11 process known as quorum sensing (QS). We investigated QS amongst heterogeneously 12 distributed microbial aggregates under various flow conditions using a process-driven numerical 13 model. Model simulations assess the conditions suitable for QS induction and quantify the 14 importance of advective transport of signaling molecules. In addition, advection dilutes signaling 15 molecules so that faster flow conditions require higher microbial densities, faster signal 16 production rates, or higher sensitivities to signaling molecules to induce QS. However, 17 autoinduction of signal production can substantially increase the transport distance of signaling 18 molecules in both upstream and downstream directions. We present approximate analytical 19 solutions of the advection-diffusion-reaction equation that describe the concentration profiles of 20 signaling molecules for a wide range of flow and reaction rates. These empirical relationships, 21 which predict the distribution of dissolved solutes following zero-order production kinetics along 22 pore channels, allow to quantitatively estimate the effective communication distances amongst 23 multiple microbial aggregates without further numerical simulations. 24 25 Author Summary 26Microbes can interact with their surrounding environments by producing and sensing small 27 signaling molecules. When the microbes experience a high enough concentration of the signaling 28 molecules, they express certain phenotypes which is often energetically expensive. This 29 microbial decision-making process known as quorum sensing (QS) has been understood to 30 confer evolutionary benefits. However, it is still not completely understood how transport of the 31 produced signaling molecules affects QS. Using a mathematical approach investigating QS 32 across a range of environmentally relevant flow conditions, we find that advective transport 33 promotes QS downstream yet also dilutes the concentration of signaling molecules. We quantify 34 the importance of microbial cell location with respect to both other microbes and flow direction. 35 By analyzing complex numerical simulation results, we provide analytical approximations to 36 assess the distribution of signaling molecules in pore channels across a range of flow and 37 reaction conditions. 38 39 Introduction 40Microorganisms preferentially reside on solid surfaces, which often leads to a closer 41 proximity of neighboring cells than when in a planktonic form [1]. At elevated cell densities, 42 microorganisms need to efficiently coordinate the expression of energetically expensive 43 phenotypes, such as biofilm development, exoenzyme production, and microbial dispersal. 44 Efficiency is achieved by producing and detecting relatively cheap signaling molecules which 45 regulate the phenotype expression only when a sufficient signal concentration has been reached 46 [2]. This microbial decision-making process called "quorum sensing (QS)" was orig...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mathematical investigation of microbial quorum sensing under various flow conditions

Jung¹,

Meile

2020

Preprint

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“…Under fixed or flowed medium conditions, most of the QS fermentations are markedly different. [ 83,84 ] Therefore, it is necessary to further study the effects of the environment on QS and characterize the robustness of those QS circuits. In addition, QS based dynamic control provides a wide range of tunable expression level space compared with the static control and traditional dynamic regulation approaches, [ 8,72,74 ] indicating that design, construction, and optimization of QS circuits for metabolic pathway engineering require much more time‐consuming and labor‐intensive laboratory works.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quorum Sensing System Used as a Tool in Metabolic Engineering

Sheng

Chen

et al. 2020

Biotechnology Journal

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Quorum sensing (QS) is a ubiquitous cell-cell communication mechanism in microbes that coordinates population-level cell behaviors, such as biofilm production, virulence, swarming motility, and bacterial persistence. Efforts to engineer QS systems to take part in metabolic network regulation represent a promising strategy for synthetic biology and pathway engineering. Recently, design, construction, and implementation of QS circuits for programmed control of bacterial phenotypes and metabolic pathways have gained much attention, but have not been reviewed recently. In this article, the architectural organizations and genetic contributions of the naturally occurring QS components to understand the mechanisms are summarized. Then, the most recent progress in application of QS toolkits to develop synthetic networks for novel cell behaviors creation and metabolic pathway engineering is highlighted. The current challenges in large-scale application of these QS circuits in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering fields are discussed and future perspectives for further engineering efforts are provided.

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“…Quorum sensing has been profusely studied in free-living bacteria in laboratory conditions. However, it is now known that, in nature, bacteria can use quorum sensing mechanisms in fluid environments such as rivers, streams, intertidal and marine areas by forming biofilms [51]. Another abundant function was related to the Glutathione metabolism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Andes to the desert: First overview of the bacterial community in the Rimac river, the main source of water for Lima, Peru

Romero

Calla-Quispe

Castillo-Vilcahuaman

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BackgroundThe Rimac river is the main source of water for Lima, Peru’s capital megacity. The river is constantly affected by different types of contamination including mine tailings in the Andes and urban sewage in the metropolitan area. We aim to produce the first characterization of bacterial communities in the Rimac river using a 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing approach which would be useful to identify bacterial diversity and potential understudied pathogens.ResultsWe report a higher diversity in bacterial communities from the Upper and, especially, Middle Rimac compared to the Lower Rimac (Metropolitan zone). Samples were generally grouped according to their geographical location. Bacterial classes Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidia, Campylobacteria, Fusobacteriia, and Gammaproteobacteria were the most frequent along the river in different proportions. Arcobacter cryaerophilus (Campylobacteria) was the most frequent species in the Lower Rimac while an unidentified Leptotrichiaceae (Fusobacteriia) and Flavobacterium succinicans (Bacteroidia) were the most predominant in the Upper zone. Predicted metabolic functions in the microbiota include bacterial motility, quorum sensing and xenobiotics metabolism. Additional metabolomic analyses showed the presence natural flavonoids and antibiotics in the Upper Rimac and herbicides in the Lower Rimac.ConclusionsThe dominance in the Metropolitan area of Arcobacter cryaerophilus, an emergent pathogen associated with fecal contamination and antibiotic multiresistance, but that is not usually reported in traditional microbiological quality assessments, highlights the necessity to apply next-generation sequencing tools to improve pathogen surveillance. We believe that our study will the integration of omics sciences in Peru and its application on current environmental and public health issues.Ethical approvalThe study did not involve experiments in humans nor animal subjects.

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Resilience of bacterial quorum sensing against fluid flow

Cited by 31 publications

References 61 publications

Mathematical investigation of microbial quorum sensing under various flow conditions

Mathematical investigation of microbial quorum sensing under various flow conditions

Quorum Sensing System Used as a Tool in Metabolic Engineering

From the Andes to the desert: First overview of the bacterial community in the Rimac river, the main source of water for Lima, Peru

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