{"id":7720,"date":"2016-06-14T21:44:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T21:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/?post_type=publication&#038;p=7709"},"modified":"2016-10-14T19:06:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T19:06:45","slug":"from-deep-sea-volcanoes-to-human-pathogens-a-conserved-quorum-sensing-signal-in-epsilonproteobacteria","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/publication\/from-deep-sea-volcanoes-to-human-pathogens-a-conserved-quorum-sensing-signal-in-epsilonproteobacteria\/","title":{"rendered":"From deep-sea volcanoes to human pathogens: a conserved quorum-sensing signal in Epsilonproteobacteria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chemosynthetic <i>Epsilonproteobacteria<\/i> from deep-sea hydrothermal vents colonize substrates exposed to steep thermal and redox gradients. In many bacteria, substrate attachment, biofilm formation, expression of virulence genes and host colonization are partly controlled via a cell density-dependent mechanism involving signal molecules, known as quorum sensing. Within the <i>Epsilonproteobacteria<\/i>, quorum sensing has been investigated only in human pathogens that use the <i>luxS<\/i><span class=\"mb\">\/<\/span>autoinducer-2 (AI-2) mechanism to control the expression of some of these functions. In this study we showed that <i>luxS<\/i> is conserved in <i>Epsilonproteobacteria<\/i> and that pathogenic and mesophilic members of this class inherited this gene from a thermophilic ancestor. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the <i>luxS<\/i> gene is expressed\u2014and a quorum-sensing signal is produced\u2014during growth of <i>Sulfurovum lithotrophicum<\/i> and <i>Caminibacter mediatlanticus<\/i>, two <i>Epsilonproteobacteria<\/i> from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Finally, we detected <i>luxS<\/i> transcripts in <i>Epsilonproteobacteria<\/i>-dominated biofilm communities collected from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Taken together, our findings indicate that the epsiloproteobacterial lineage of the LuxS enzyme originated in high-temperature geothermal environments and that, in vent <i>Epsilonproteobacteria<\/i>, <i>luxS<\/i> expression is linked to the production of AI-2 signals, which are likely produced <i>in situ<\/i> at deep-sea vents. We conclude that the <i>luxS<\/i> gene is part of the ancestral epsilonproteobacterial genome and represents an evolutionary link that connects thermophiles to human pathogens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","tags":[],"publication_type":[19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication\/7720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publication"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7720"},{"taxonomy":"publication_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_type?post=7720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}