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Journal of Bacteriology, October 1998, p. 5398-5405, Vol. 180, No. 20
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Analogs of the Autoinducer 3-Oxooctanoyl-Homoserine Lactone
Strongly Inhibit Activity of the TraR Protein of
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Jun
Zhu,1
John W.
Beaber,1
Margret I.
Moré,1
Clay
Fuqua,2
Anatol
Eberhard,3 and
Stephen
C.
Winans1,*
Section of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New
York 14853,1
Department of Biology,
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
78212,2 and
Department of Chemistry,
Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York
148503
Received 23 March 1998/Accepted 28 July 1998
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ABSTRACT |
The TraR and TraI proteins of Agrobacterium tumefaciens
mediate cell-density-dependent expression of the Ti plasmid
tra regulon. TraI synthesizes the autoinducer pheromone
N-(3-oxooctanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone
(3-oxo-C8-HSL), while TraR is an
3-oxo-C8-HSL-responsive transcriptional activator. We have
compared the abilities of 3-oxo-C8-HSL and 32 related
compounds to activate expression of a TraR-regulated promoter. In a
strain that expresses wild-type levels of TraR, only
3-oxo-C8-HSL was strongly stimulatory, four compounds were detectably active only at high concentrations, and the remaining 28 compounds were inactive. Furthermore, many of these compounds were
potent antagonists. In contrast, almost all of these compounds were
stimulatory in a congenic strain that overexpresses TraR and no
compound was a potent antagonist. We propose a model in which
autoinducers enhance the affinity of TraR either for other TraR
monomers or for DNA binding sites and that overexpression of TraR
potentiates this interaction by mass action. Wild-type A. tumefaciens released a rather broad spectrum of autoinducers, including several that antagonize induction of a wild-type strain. However, under all conditions tested, 3-oxo-C8-HSL was more
abundant than any other analog, indicating that other released
autoinducers do not interfere with tra gene induction. We
conclude that (i) in wild-type strains, only 3-oxo-C8-HSL
significantly stimulates tra gene expression, while many
autoinducer analogs are potent antagonists; (ii) TraR overexpression
increases agonistic activity of autoinducer analogs, allowing sensitive
biodetection of many autoinducers; and (iii) autoinducer stimulatory
activity is potentiated by TraR overproduction, suggesting that
autoinducers may shift an equilibrium between TraR
monomers and dimers or oligomers. When autoinducer
specificities of other quorum-sensing proteins are tested, care should
be taken not to overexpress those proteins.
 |
INTRODUCTION |
Many genera of bacteria use
diffusible chemicals to exchange information (3, 5, 12, 18, 26,
36, 41, 45). An important class of chemical signal molecules is
the family of N-acyl-homoserine lactones
(N-acyl-HSLs), which are generally synthesized by an enzyme
related to the LuxI protein of Vibrio fischeri. These
compounds, called autoinducers, passively diffuse across the bacterial envelope and therefore accumulate intracellularly only at high bacterial densities (25). These chemicals are
thought to bind to a protein related to the LuxR protein of
V. fischeri, whose amino terminus contains an
autoinducer binding site and whose carboxyl terminus
binds to a DNA site directly upstream of the lux promoter
(1, 7, 21, 42). Cell density-dependent gene expression is
denoted quorum sensing, and this sort of regulation is used by a wide
spectrum of bacteria to regulate diverse genes, including the
pathogenicity genes of several plant and animal pathogens.
The Ti plasmids of several Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains
bear genes that encode a LuxI-type protein called TraI, which synthesizes N-(3-oxooctanoyl)-L-HSL
(3-oxo-C8-HSL) and a LuxR-type protein called TraR, which
presumably binds 3-oxo-C8-HSL (17, 23, 30, 34,
46). Putative TraR-autoinducer complexes activate transcription of several genes required for Ti plasmid conjugal transfer as well as other Ti plasmid-borne genes. As expected, Ti
plasmid conjugation occurs only at high donor population
densities (16). The expression of TraR is regulated by
particular opines (17). Octopine induces expression of the
traR genes of plasmids related to pTi15955, pTiA6, and
pTiR10, while agrocinopines A and B induce the traR gene of
pTiC58 (4, 17). These observations explain older findings
that Ti plasmid conjugation occurs only within crown gall tumors or in
the presence of particular opines (9). The traR
and traI genes are positively autoregulated (17).
All autoinducers described to date contain an HSL
moiety and a fatty acyl group whose members have various lengths,
saturation levels, and oxidation states. Two of these
compounds have been shown to derive their fatty acids from
acyl-ACP (22, 30, 38), which indicates that these fatty
acids are drawn from pools of fatty acid biosynthetic intermediates.
The fatty acids of acyl-ACPs always have even numbers of carbon
atoms. They also have either 3-oxo, 3-hydroxyl, or fully
reduced methylene groups at the C-3 position or a have a 2,3 unsaturated bond (8). Accordingly, the acyl groups of all
natural autoinducers have even numbers of carbon atoms
and have 3-oxo, 3-hydroxyl, or fully reduced acyl groups. Curiously, no
autoinducer has been reported to contain a 2,3 unsaturated bond in its acyl moiety, although two
autoinducers have 7,8 unsaturated bonds (20, 35,
39). The lengths of these side chains contain between 4 and 14 carbon atoms.
In several studies, the ability of autoinducer analogs
to induce expression of quorum-sensing systems has been tested (6, 13, 19, 32, 37, 46). In general, compounds closely related to the
cognate autoinducer caused weak-to-moderate gene
expression while less similar compounds were less active. In some
cases, autoinducer analogs acted as antagonists of the
native autoinducer and thereby inhibited the induction
of target genes. In two studies, autoinducer analogs
were demonstrated to inhibit binding of radiolabeled autoinducers (32, 37).
There are a few reports of a single LuxI-type protein synthesizing more
than one autoinducer. LuxI synthesizes primarily
3-oxo-C6-HSL (see Fig. 1, compound C) but also synthesizes
small amounts of C6-HSL (compound K; see reference 27).
Similarly, an Escherichia coli strain expressing the
LasI protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa synthesizes primarily
3-oxo-C12-HSL but also synthesizes trace amounts of
additional compounds, including two that coelute by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with 3-oxo-C6-HSL and 3-oxo-C8-HSL (33,
44). The SwrI protein of Serratia liquefaciens
synthesizes both C4-HSL and C6-HSL in a 10:1
ratio (14). HPLC fractionation of Agrobacterium
autoinducers revealed two bioactive fractions
(46). One fraction contained 3-oxo-C8-HSL, while
a second, less homogeneous, fraction contained compounds having
molecular masses of 274, 214, and 200 Da. While the 274-Da compound was
thought to be due to a purification artifact, the other two compounds
were not since they had molecular masses identical to those of
3-oxo-C6-HSL and C6-HSL, respectively.
That study did not determine whether all three compounds were
synthesized by TraI.
Shaw and colleagues recently described an elegant method for using an
A. tumefaciens strain to detect a broad range of
autoinducers (40). The strain used in these
studies was able to recognize no fewer than nine
autoinducers having a wide variety of acyl side groups.
However, in an earlier report, an A. tumefaciens strain
discriminated between different autoinducers far more
strongly (46). One difference between these two studies is
the genotypes of the bioassay strains. In the present study, we
evaluated whether differences in the traR genotype that
affect its expression level might alter the ability of A. tumefaciens to detect analogs of 3-oxo-C8-HSL. We
report that TraR overproduction allows A. tumefaciens to detect a broad range of autoinducer analogs and
abolishes the ability of autoinducer analogs to act
as antagonists.
 |
MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Strains and plasmids.
WCF47 is a derivative of R10
(10) containing a nonpolar internal deletion of
traI. The traI deletion was constructed with two
fragments generated by PCR, one containing the 5' end of
traI and upstream sequences and the other containing the 3'
end of traI and downstream sequences. These fragments were
ligated together, and the resulting traI deletion was
introduced into the suicide plasmid pKNG101 (24). The
resulting plasmid, pCF393, was introduced into strain R10 by
conjugation and selected with streptomycin. Streptomycin-resistant
transconjugants were plated on solid medium lacking streptomycin and
containing 5% sucrose. The sacB gene of pCF393 confers
sucrose sensitivity, and sucrose therefore selects for Campbell-type
excision. Sucrose-resistant derivatives were screened for the inability
to produce 3-oxo-C8-HSL. pCF218 is an IncP plasmid that
expresses TraR from a vector promoter (17), while pCF372
contains a PtraI-lacZ fusion (16).
Synthesis of autoinducer analogs.
The
chemical structures of autoinducer analogs used in this
study are shown in Fig. 1. Synthesis of
compounds A, E, I, J, K, L, M, and N was previously described
(13). Synthesis of compounds B, T, and Y was as described in
reference 37, while synthesis of compounds C and G was as described in
references 11 and 33, respectively.

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FIG. 1.
Chemical structures of N-acyl-HSL compounds
used in this study. Non-IUPAC descriptions of compounds are as follows:
A, 3-oxobutanoyl-HSL; B, 3-oxopentanoyl-HSL; C, 3-oxohexanoyl-HSL; D,
3-oxoheptanoyl-HSL; E, 3-oxooctanoyl-HSL; F, 3-oxoundecanoyl-HSL; G,
3-oxododecanoyl-HSL; H, 4-oxa-3-oxohexanoyl-HSL; I, butanoyl-HSL; J,
pentanoyl-HSL; K, hexanoyl-HSL; L, heptanoyl-HSL; M, octanoyl-HSL; N,
decanoyl-HSL; O, dodecanoyl-HSL; P, 3-hydroxynonanoyl-HSL; Q,
3-hydroxydodecanoyl-HSL; R, 2-butenoyl-HSL; S, 2-pentenoyl-HSL; T,
2-hexenoyl-HSL; U, 2-octenoyl-HSL; V, 2-nonenoyl-HSL; W,
2-decenoyl-HSL; X, 2-butynoyl-HSL; Y, 2-hexynoyl-HSL; Z,
5-hexynoyl-HSL; AA, 2-octynoyl-HSL; AB, 3-oxo-7-octynoyl-HSL; AC,
3-oxo-11-octadecenoyl-HSL; AD, diHSL-decandioate; AE,
diHSL-3,12-dioxotetradecandioate; AF, p-propylbenzoyl-HSL;
and AG, O-hexyl-N-HSL carbamate.
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Compounds D, F, AB, AC, and AE were synthesized by the same procedures
as those used to make compound B but with the corresponding
acyl acid
chlorides. Compounds H, O, R, S, U, V, W, X, Z, AA,
and AF were
synthesized by the same procedures as those used to
make compound I but
with the sodium salt of the corresponding
fatty acid. Monoethyl
malonate was used to make compound H. Compound
AD was synthesized by
reaction of the dicarboxylic acid chlorides
with two equivalents of HSL
hydrobromide in pyridine followed
by adsorption to a BondElut column
and purification by preparative
HPLC. Compound AG was made similarly
from hexyl chloroformate.
Compounds P and Q were synthesized by a
Reformatsky reaction followed
by coupling of the resulting
3-hydroxycarboxylates with HSL hydrobromide
by the same technique used
to make compound I. The purity of all
compounds was carefully tested by
reversed-phase HPLC.
The formal International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
chemical designations for the compounds used in this
study are as
follows: A, 3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)butanamide;
B, 3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)pentanamide; C,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)hexanamide;
D,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)heptanamide; E,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)octanamide;
F,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)undecanamide; G,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)dodecanamide;
H,
2-ethoxycarbonyl-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)ethanamide;
I,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)butanamide;
J,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)pentanamide; K,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)hexanamide;
L,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)heptanamide; M,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)octanamide;
N,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)decanamide; O,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)dodecanamide;
P,
3-hydroxy-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)nonanamide; Q,
3-hydroxy-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)dodecanamide;R,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-butenamide; S,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-pentenamide;
T,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-hexenamide; U,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-octenamide;
V,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-nonenamide; W,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-decenamide;
X,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-butynamide; Y,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-hexynamide;
Z,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-5-hexynamide; AA,
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-2-octynamide;
AB,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-7-octynamide; AC,
3-oxo-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)-11-octadecenamide;
AD,
N,
N'-bis(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)decandiamide;
AE,
3,12-dioxo-
N,
N'-bis(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)tetradecandiamide;
AF, 4-propyl-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)benzamide; and
AG,
1-hexoxy-
N-(tetrahydro-2-oxo-3-furanyl)methanamide. See
the legend
to Fig.
1 for non-IUPAC descriptions of these compounds.
Bioassays of autoinducer activity.
Autoinducer analogs were stored in ethyl acetate at
80°C. Prior to
use, autoinducers were warmed to room temperature and 0.017 µmol was added in 34 µl of ethyl acetate to empty culture tubes. After the solvent was allowed to evaporate, 1.75 ml of AT medium
(43) supplemented with 400 µg of octopine per ml and approximately 107 bacterial cells [strain
WCF47(pCF372) or WCF47(pCF372)(pCF218)] was added. After
the autoinducer analog was allowed to dissolve, 0.55 ml
was removed and added to 1.2 ml of the same culture (a 3.16-fold
dilution). This dilution was repeated serially nine times, resulting in
10 culture tubes having analogs at concentrations ranging from
10
1 to 104 to nM. These cultures were
incubated with aeration for 12 h and assayed for
-galactosidase
specific activity (29). The bacterial cultures remained in
exponential growth phase during this interval. To assay the abilities
of analogs to prevent induction, the assays described above were
repeated, except that 3-oxo-C8-HSL (final concentration,
102 nM) was added in addition to the indicated amounts of
other compounds.
Western immunoblots of TraR.
To compare intracellular
concentrations of TraR in the two bioassay strains described above, we
cultured each strain in 100 ml of AT broth containing 100 nM
3-oxo-C8-HSL to an optical density at 600 nm of 0.6, concentrated the cultures by centrifugation, resuspended the cultures
in 1 ml of TEDG (50 mM Tris-HCL [pH 7.9], 0.5 mM EDTA, 1 mM
dithiothreitol, 5% glycerol), disrupted the cells using a French
pressure cell, and ultracentrifuged the lysates at 150,000 × g for 30 min. The resulting cleared lysates were size
fractionated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane, and detected
with affinity-purified polyclonal anti-TraR rabbit antiserum.
TLC analysis of autoinducers released by
A. tumefaciens.
The isolation of
autoinducers by strains expressing TraI was done by
culturing strains to stationary phase in 20 ml of broth, removing
bacteria by centrifugation, and extracting the cell-free spent broth
three times with 3 volumes of ethyl acetate. In control experiments,
this procedure was shown to recover virtually all of the
3-oxo-C8-HSL and 3-oxo-C6-HSL, although it may
not result in quantitative recovery of more polar compounds. The ethyl
acetate fractions were pooled and evaporated to dryness, and each
residue was resuspended in 1 ml of ethyl acetate, transferred to a 1-ml glass vial, and reevaporated. The residue was resuspended in 200 µl
of ethyl acetate and stored at
80°C. Aliquots (1 µl) were applied
to C18 reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates (Whatman) and chromatographed with 60% methanol-40% water as
described previously (40). After chromatography, the
plates were dried and overlaid with 200 ml of agar containing AT
medium, 40 µg of X-Gal
(5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-
-D-galactopyranoside), and approximately 107 bacteria per ml [strain
WCF47(pCF372)(pCF218)]. TLC plates were incubated overnight at
28°C and examined for X-Gal hydrolysis.
In experiments to identify products of alkaline hydrolysis of
autoinducers, 0.2 nmol of 3-oxo-C
8-HSL or 2 nmol of 3-oxo-C
6-HSL
that had been dissolved in ethyl
acetate was transferred to empty
microcentrifuge tubes and the ethyl
acetate was removed by evaporation.
The dried
autoinducers were resuspended in 20 µl of water, 20
µl of 0.01 M NaOH (pH 12), or 20 µl of 0.1 M NaOH (pH 13) and
then
incubated at room temperature for 1 h. One microliter of
each was
spotted directly onto a reversed-phase TLC plate, which
was developed
as described above.
 |
RESULTS |
Recognition of autoinducer analogs by a strain
expressing wild-type levels of TraR.
We assayed 33 autoinducers and chemically related compounds (Fig. 1)
for the ability to induce
-galactosidase activity in strain
WCF47(pCF372), which lacks its own traI gene and which has a plasmid-borne PtraI-lacZ fusion. Synthetic
3-oxo-C8-HSL (compound E) detectably activated this fusion
at a concentration of 3.0 nM (Fig. 2). A
concentration of 104 nM caused production of approximately
700 U of enzyme activity. The dose-response curve shown in Fig. 2
suggests that this regulatory system was not saturated by a
104 nM concentration of this autoinducer.
In marked contrast to these results, of the 32 other compounds tested,
only four caused production of significant levels of
-galactosidase
activity (Fig. 2 and Table 1). These
compounds are 3-oxo-C7-HSL (compound D),
3-oxo-C11-HSL (F), 3-oxo-C12-HSL (G), and
3-oxo-7-octynoyl-HSL (AB). All of these compounds closely resemble
3-oxo-C8-HSL, differing only in the length or level of
desaturation of the acyl moeity. All compounds except
3-oxo-C8-HSL were weakly active or inactive at concentrations less than 103 nM (Fig. 2).

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FIG. 2.
Dose-response curves with A. tumfaciens
WCF47(pCF372). Results with compounds E ( ), D ( ), F ( ), G
( ), and AB ( ) are shown. All other compounds were inactive.
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We also tested whether any of these compounds could antagonize
induction by 3-oxo-C
8-HSL. We assayed cultures of strain
WCF47(pCF372)
in the presence of 10
2 nM
3-oxo-C
8-HSL and a 10
2, 10
3, or
10
4 nM concentration of each of the other analogs.
Approximately
half of these analogs inhibited induction at least
fourfold when
they were provided at a 100:1 molar ratio (Table
2). In some
cases, activity was reduced
100-fold or more. Six compounds inhibited
induction at least fourfold
when they were supplied at a 10:1
molar ratio, and one compound
(C
8-HSL, compound M) inhibited induction
when it was
provided at a 1:1 molar ratio (Table
2). The most
effective antagonists
included 3-oxo-C
6-HSL (compound C),
C
7-HSL
(L), C
8-HSL (M),
C
10-HSL (N), and 3-hydroxy-C
9-HSL (P),
all of
which closely resemble 3-oxo-C
8-HSL in structure.
Autoinducer recognition by a strain that overexpresses
TraR.
To determine whether TraR overexpression altered the
detection of autoinducers, we constructed a derivative
of WCF47(pCF372) that contains plasmid pCF218, which bears
DNA that overexpresses TraR from a vector promoter (17).
While WCF47(pCF372) synthesizes extremely low levels of TraR,
WCF47(pCF372)(pCF218) synthesizes amounts that are
readily detectable by Western immunoblotting (Fig.
3). WCF47(pCF372)(pCF218) was far
more sensitive to low concentrations of 3-oxo-C8-HSL than
its parent, since it was detectably induced at concentrations as low as
0.1 nM and the response was saturated by an approximately 10 nM
concentration of this autoinducer (Fig.
4A). The reporter fusion in this strain,
when fully induced, expressed about twofold more
-galactosidase than
the same reporter fusion in the strain that expresses wild-type levels
of TraR.

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FIG. 3.
Western immunoblot of serially diluted extracts of
WCF47(pCF372)(pCF218) (left) and WCF47(pCF372) (right).
Lanes 1 and 4, 10 µl of lysate; lanes 2 and 5, 2.5 µl of lysate;
lanes 3 and 6, 0.625 µl of lysate.
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FIG. 4.
Dose-response curves with an A. tumefaciens strain that overexpresses TraR. (A) Results with
compounds A ( ), B ( ), C ( ), D ( ), E ( ), F ( ), G
( ), AB ( ), and AC ( ); (B) results with compounds E ( ), J
( ), K ( ), L ( ), M ( ), N ( ), and O ( ); (C) results
with compounds E ( ), P ( ), Q ( ), S ( ), T ( ), U ( ), V
( ), and W ( ); (D) results with compounds E ( ), H ( ), Y
( ), Z ( ), AA ( ), AD (-), AE ( ), and AG ( ).
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We also tested the ability of the 32 autoinducer
analogs to induce the reporter fusion of WCF47(pCF372)(pCF218).
The responses
to two concentrations of these compounds are shown
in Table
1,
and dose-response curves for most compounds are
shown in Fig.
4. Surprisingly, this strain was detectably stimulated by
no fewer
than 29 of the 33 tested compounds. Among the most active
compounds
were 3-oxo-C
7-HSL (compound D),
3-oxo-7-octynoyl-HSL (AB), and
C
8-HSL (M), all of which can
half-maximally induce the fusion
when they are provided at 3 to 10 nM.
All three compounds are
closely related to 3-oxo-C
8-HSL.
Slightly less active compounds
include 3-oxo-C
6-HSL (C),
C
7-HSL (L), 3-oxo-C
11-HSL (F), and
3-hydroxy-C
9-HSL
(P). Almost all other compounds were
stimulatory when they were
supplied at higher concentrations. The four
inactive compounds
were C
4-HSL (I), 2-butenoyl-HSL
(R), 2-butynoyl-HSL (X), and
p-propylbenzoyl-HSL
(AF).
3-Oxo-C
4-HSL (A) was only weakly active, indicating that
TraR is stimulated very poorly or not at all by
autoinducers having
four-carbon acyl moieties. Two
other compounds, 3-oxo-11-octadecenoyl-HSL
(AC) and diHSL-decandioate
(AD), were also very weak inducers.
We tested these 32 compounds for the ability to antagonize
3-oxo-C
8-HSL. Strikingly, none of these compounds was able
to inhibit
induction more than twofold (Table
2). Several compounds
appeared
to cause very modest inhibition, although these differences
may
lie within experimental error.
Production of multiple autoinducers by
TraI.
We have shown that several naturally occurring
autoinducers are potent antagonists of
3-oxo-C8-HSL in a strain that expresses wild-type levels of
TraR. In an earlier report, Zhang and colleagues reported that an
A. tumefaciens strain containing an octopine-type Ti plasmid synthesized compounds having molecular masses identical to
those of 3-oxo-C8-HSL, 3-oxo-C6-HSL, and
C6-HSL (46). We have found that the latter
two compounds can antagonize 3-oxo-C8-HSL. To determine
whether A. tumefaciens synthesizes
inhibitory concentrations of these compounds, we used TLC
(40) to visualize all bioactive autoinducers
made by A. tumefaciens and to estimate the
concentrations of some of these compounds.
Strain R10(pCF372) was cultured in broth (AT salts supplemented with
octopine) to stationary phase and assayed for

-galactosidase
activity. The culture expressed only 36 U of activity, indicating
that
its
tra regulon was only weakly induced and suggesting that
the culture medium contained only limited amounts of
autoinducers.
These data agree with earlier
observations that the high cell
densities required for induction of
this system are more readily
achieved on semisolid medium than in broth
culture (
17). We
therefore diluted this culture fivefold
into fresh broth (AT salts
and octopine) and incubated it once
again to stationary phase.
This second culture expressed 282 U of

-galactosidase activity,
indicating that its
tra regulon
was far more strongly induced
than that of the first culture,
presumably due to the autoinducers
released during the
first growth interval. Bacteria were removed
by centrifugation from 20 ml of this culture, and the cell-free
supernatant was extracted and
resuspended in 200 µl of ethyl acetate
as described in Materials and
Methods. The concentrated extract
was serially diluted in fivefold
steps, and 1 µl of each dilution
was applied to a reversed-phase TLC
plate.
In the most concentrated sample, no fewer than six bioactive compounds
were detected (Fig.
5A). The two most
prominent spots
had
Rfs identical to those of
3-oxo-C
8-HSL and 3-oxo-C
6-HSL, and
smaller
amounts of a compound with an
Rf identical to
that of
C
6-HSL was also detected, consistent with the data
of Zhang and
colleagues (
46). In addition, trace amounts of
several more
hydrophobic compounds were detected. Two very polar
compounds
were also detected, as described more fully below.
WCF47(pCF372),
which lacks
traI, did not synthesize any
compounds active in this
assay (data not shown), suggesting that all
detected compounds
were synthesized by TraI.

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FIG. 5.
TLC of autoinducers synthesized by a
wild-type A. tumefaciens strain. (A) Lane 1 represents
the activities of autoinducers obtained from 100 µl
of culture supernatant. Lanes 2 to 8 show fivefold serial dilutions of
the sample chromatographed in lane 1. (B) Synthetic racemic
autoinducers. Lane 1 contains 50 pmol of
3-oxo-C6-HSL, 50 pmol of 3-oxo-C8-HSL, and
1,500 pmol of 3-oxo-C12-HSL. Lanes 2 to 8 show fivefold
serial dilutions of the sample chromatographed in lane 1. (C)
Conversion of 3-oxo-C8-HSL and 3-oxo-C6-HSL to
a more polar active form by treatment with alkali. Lane 1, 3-oxo-C8-HSL incubated at pH 7.0; lane 2, 3-oxo-C8-HSL incubated at pH 12 for 1 h; lane 3, 3-oxo-C8-HSL incubated at pH 13 for 1 h; lane 4, autoinducers produced by strain R10(pCF372); lane
5, 3-oxo-C6-HSL incubated at pH 13 for 1 h; lane 6, 3-oxo-C6-HSL incubated at pH 12 for 1 h; lane 7, 3-oxo-C6-HSL incubated at pH 7.
|
|
The concentrations of 3-oxo-C
8-HSL and
3-oxo-C
6-HSL were estimated by serially diluting each
concentrated extract and identifying
the greatest dilution that
contained detectable amounts of each
compound. These spots were
compared to spots made by serially
diluted synthetic
autoinducers (Fig.
5B). From these data, we
estimated
that the culture contained 16 µM 3-oxo-C
8-HSL and 0.6
µM 3-oxo-C
6-HSL.
We also tested the production of autoinducers by strain
R10(pCF372)(pCF218), which overexpresses TraR and therefore
constitutively
overexpresses TraI (
17), as well as strain
KYC6, which contains
a null mutation in
traM and therefore
expresses the
tra regulon
at elevated levels
(
15). The culture supernatants of these strains
contained
all of the bioactive compounds detected above (data
not shown).
Furthermore, these compounds were synthesized in ratios
similar
to those in R10(pCF372). The culture supernatant of strain
R10(pCF372)(pCF218) contained approximately 1,100 µM
3-oxo-C
8-HSL
and 25 µM 3-oxo-C
6-HSL, while
that of KYC6 contained 800 µM 3-oxo-C
8-HSL
and 50 µM
3-oxo-C
6-HSL. Therefore, artificial overexpression of
the
tra regulon increased the production of all detectable
autoinducers
but did not greatly alter the ratios of
their concentrations.
Since 3-oxo-C
6-HSL and
C
6-HSL inhibit
tra gene expression only
when
they are present at concentrations higher than that of
3-oxo-C
8-HSL
(Table
2), the concentrations found in
A. tumefaciens supernatants
are unlikely to interfere
with expression of the
tra regulon.
As described above, two very polar bioactive compounds present in
culture supernatants were detected in these TLC assays.
Neither of
these compounds is likely to be 3-oxo-C
4-HSL, because
synthetic 3-oxo-C
4-HSL was poorly detected in this
assay and formed
an extremely diffuse spot (data not shown). We
hypothesized that
the two polar compounds could be a consequence of
spontaneous
hydrolysis of the HSL ring of two of the
autoinducers described
above. To test this, we
treated synthetic 3-oxo-C
8-HSL and
3-oxo-C
6-HSL
with alkali at pH 12 or 13 for 1 h at
room temperature and chromatographed
and bioassayed the resulting
compounds. Incubation at pH 13 destroyed
both compounds (Fig.
5C, lane
3 and 5). However, hydrolysis of
3-oxo-C
8-HSL caused the
appearance of a bioactive compound having
an
Rf
identical to the that of most polar compound found in
A. tumefaciens culture supernatants (Fig.
5C, lanes 2, 3, and 4).
Hydrolysis of 3-oxo-C
6-HSL caused the appearance of an even
more
polar compound (Fig.
5C, lanes 5 and 6) that did not comigrate
with any bioactive compound in lane 4. Since alkali opens the
HSL ring,
these polar compounds are probably 3-oxo-C
8-homoserine
and
3-oxo-C
6-homoserine. These compounds are either detectably
active in this bioassay or else undergo lactonization during the
drying
of the TLC plates, forming bioactive acyl-HSLs. These data
are
reminiscent of the data of Zhang and colleagues, who reported
that an
acyclic methyl ester of 3-oxo-C
8-HSL is bioactive
(
46).
 |
DISCUSSION |
We have tested the ability of two strains of A. tumefaciens to discriminate between the
autoinducer 3-oxo-C8-HSL and a variety of related compounds. The strain expressing wild-type levels of TraR
was far more strongly induced by its cognate
autoinducer than by any other tested compound and was
completely nonresponsive to all but four analogs. In contrast, an
isogenic strain that constitutively overexpressed TraR was far more
sensitive to these compounds and seemed to be less discriminatory,
since 29 of the 33 compounds tested were stimulatory and several of
these showed a half-maximal responses at only 3 to 30-fold-higher
concentrations than that of the native autoinducer.
Furthermore, in the strain expressing wild-type levels of TraR, many
analogs were potent inhibitors of induction, while in a strain that
overexpressed TraR, inhibition was not detected.
The narrow substrate specificities of wild-type strains might be
interpreted to mean that only 3-oxo-C8-HSL and a few
closely related compounds can bind TraR at the concentrations used.
However, this possibility is inconsistent with our finding that many of the same compounds are potent antagonists, since this antagonism is
presumably a consequence of competition for autoinducer
binding sites. We therefore prefer a model in which TraR can bind a
wide variety of autoinducer analogs but in which only a
small subset can cause a conformational change in TraR necessary to
convert it to an active form.
As described above, the strain expressing wild-type levels of TraR was
stimulated only by compounds that closely resemble the cognate
autoinducer (compounds D, F, G, and AB). Furthermore, the most effective antagonists (compounds C, L, M, N, P, Q, U, and V)
also closely resemble the cognate autoinducer. However, there was little if any overlap in performance between effective agonists and the most effective antagonists. All agonists had acyl
chains of seven carbon residues or more, and all had 3-oxo substituents. Therefore, TraR tolerated acyl groups one carbon shorter
or up to four carbons longer than the cognate
autoinducer and tolerated a triple bond at the 7-8 position but did not tolerate other alterations. In contrast, with one
exception, the strongest antagonists lacked the 3-oxo substituent and
had methylene residues, hydroxyl residues, or 2-3 unsaturated bonds at
this position. The single best antagonist (compound M) is identical to
the best autoinducer (compound E) except for the fact
that compound M lacks the 3-oxo group. The exception to this pattern is
compound C, which has a 3-oxo group but has a six-carbon fatty acyl
group. Since antagonism is probably a consequence of competitive
binding, we conclude that the 3-oxo group is completely dispensable for TraR binding but that it plays an important role in converting TraR
into an active conformation.
Overproduction of TraR did not lead to constitutive expression of a
target promoter. Rather, promoter activity still required an
autoinducer, but the number of active compounds was
drastically increased. Overexpression of TraR therefore potentiated its
ability to activate transcription. Perhaps these data can best be
explained by postulating that autoinducers increase the
affinity of TraR either for other TraR monomers or for tra
box DNA (or conceivably for some other macromolecule such as RNA
polymerase). If so, autoinducer analogs may cause
similar but smaller increases in affinity. Small increases in affinity
would be insufficient to drive activation of wild-type TraR pools but
would be sufficient to cause activation when TraR is overproduced. To
help illustrate this point, we propose that 3-oxo-C8-HSL
may act by decreasing the Kd for TraR
dimerization from, perhaps, 10
4 to 10
7 M,
while 3-oxo-C6-HSL may decrease the
Kd to 10
6 M. According to this
hypothetical example, a low concentration of TraR (for example,
10
7 M TraR monomers) would permit significant
dimerization by 3-oxo-C8-HSL but not by
3-oxo-C6-HSL while a higher concentration of TraR (for example, 10
5 M TraR monomers) would permit significant
dimerization by both autoinducers. If
autoinducers decrease the Kd for
TraR-DNA or TraR-RNA polymerase interactions, very similar models can
be proposed.
There are at least two indications that active TraR is di- or
oligomeric, as was previously suggested for LuxR (13).
First, a truncated TraR-like protein lacking a DNA binding domain
exerts dominant negative effects on tra gene expression,
suggesting that it forms inactive heteromultimers (31, 47).
Similar data have been reported for LuxR (7). Second,
several putative TraR-binding sites show a strong dyad symmetry
(16), suggesting that one monomer of a dimer contacts one
arm of the dyad and that a second monomer makes identical contacts on
the opposite arm.
Our observations are reminiscent of the data of Sitnikov and coworkers
(41), who found that 3-hydroxy-C4-HSL failed to
activate lux genes in V. fischeri but did so
when the lux operon was cloned in E. coli, where
LuxR may have been overexpressed. In the same study,
C10-HSL was an antagonist of lux genes in
V. fischeri but was an agonist in E. coli.
Similarly, Schaefer and colleagues reported that 15 of 17 autoinducer analogs inhibited bioluminescence in
V. fischeri (in the weakly bioluminescent strain B-61;
see reference 13), while in a separate study, many of the same
compounds did not inhibit bioluminescence in a recombinant strain of
E. coli carrying a reconstituted lux regulon
(37). Kuo and colleagues also demonstrated that
C8-HSL is an antagonist in V. fischeri (28). LuxR was overexpressed in these E. coli
strains, and this may have increased autoinducer
sensitivity in a fashion similar to that observed for TraR in our
study.
Similar studies have been carried out with an E. coli strain
expressing LasR (32). In this study, LasR showed a broad
substrate specificity, comparable to the response we observed using the TraR-overexpressing strain. Many of these compounds competed against radiolabeled 3-oxo-C12-HSL in a binding assay, but none
interfered with induction of a target promoter. It is possible that
LasR would have shown a narrower autoinducer
specificity and would have been more effectively antagonized had it
been expressed at wild-type levels. This may have important clinical
implications, where autoinducer antagonists may be
useful in treating Pseudomonas infections.
The ability of wild-type A. tumefaciens to discriminate
between 3-oxo-C8-HSL and all other tested compounds should
prevent induction by noncognate autoinducers released
by other bacterial species. In fact, the only noncognate
autoinducer that efficiently induced the tra
regulon at low concentrations (3-oxo-C7-HSL) has an odd
number of carbon atoms and is therefore unlikely to be found in nature.
On the other hand, the finding that many compounds actively inhibited
induction suggests that other bacterial species in the rhizosphere may
interfere with autoinduction and thereby inhibit Ti plasmid
conjugation. Whether this has important ecological consequences is not
known. By analogy, one can imagine that 3-oxo-C6-HSL synthesized by A. tumefaciens may well perturb
autoinduction by other bacterial species.
TraI can synthesize detectable amounts of several
autoinducers in addition to 3-C8-HSL (Fig.
5). It is noteworthy that at least two of these compounds can inhibit
induction of wild-type strains (Table 1). However, these compounds are
synthesized at levels lower than that of 3-oxo-C8-HSL and
are therefore unlikely to interfere with induction.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
We thank the following Ithaca College chemistry students: L. David Finger for the synthesis of compounds H, AD, AE, and AG; Michael
Kiefer for the synthesis of compounds Q, X, Z, AA, and AB; A. Damon for the synthesis of compounds S and W; and Anthony Atti, Adam
Brownstein, Shomesh Doddi, J. P. Kirby, George Lemieux, Robert
Lewis, Patrick Sarmiere, Jonathan Sparks, and Robert Tarsa for
synthesis of compounds D, F, O, P, R, U, V, AC, and AF, respectively.
This study was supported by NIH grant GM42893.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Section of
Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Phone: (607)
255-2413. Fax: (607) 255-3904. E-mail: scw2{at}cornell.edu.
 |
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Zhu, J., and S. C. Winans.
1998.
Activity of the quorum-sensing regulator TraR of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is inhibited by a truncated, dominant defective TraR-like protein.
Mol. Microbiol.
27:289-297[Medline].
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Journal of Bacteriology, October 1998, p. 5398-5405, Vol. 180, No. 20
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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