This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wei, J.-R.
Right arrow Articles by Lai, H.-C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wei, J.-R.
Right arrow Articles by Lai, H.-C.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2006, p. 1518-1525, Vol. 188, No. 4
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.188.4.1518-1525.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Mobile Quorum-Sensing System in Serratia marcescens

Jun-Rong Wei,1 Yu-Huan Tsai,1 Yu-Tze Horng,1 Po-Chi Soo,1 Shang-Chen Hsieh,1 Po-Ren Hsueh,2 Jim-Tong Horng,3 Paul Williams,4 and Hsin-Chih Lai1,2*

Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China,1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China,2 Department of Biochemistry, Chang Gung University, 259, Wen-Hwa First Road, Kweishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan,3 Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom4

Received 2 August 2005/ Accepted 10 November 2005

Quorum-sensing systems that have been widely identified in bacteria play important roles in the regulation of bacterial multicellular behavior by which bacteria sense population density to control various biological functions, including virulence. One characteristic of the luxIR quorum-sensing genes is their diverse and discontinuous distribution among proteobacteria. Here we report that the spnIR quorum-sensing system identified in the enterobacterium Serratia marcescens strain SS-1 is carried in a transposon, TnTIR, which has common characteristics of Tn3 family transposons and is mobile between chromosomes and plasmids of different enterobacterial hosts. SpnIR functions in the new host and was shown to negatively regulate the TnTIR transposition frequency. This finding may help reveal the horizontal transfer and evolutionary mechanism of quorum-sensing genes and alter the way that we perceive regulation of bacterial multicellular behavior.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, No.1. Chang-Der Street, Taipei 100, Taiwan, Republic of China. Phone: 886 2 2312-3456, ext. 6931. Fax: 886 2 2371-1574. E-mail: hclai{at}ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw.

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2006, p. 1518-1525, Vol. 188, No. 4
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.188.4.1518-1525.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Williams, P. (2007). Quorum sensing, communication and cross-kingdom signalling in the bacterial world. Microbiology 153: 3923-3938 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Williams, P., Winzer, K., Chan, W. C, Camara, M. (2007). Look who's talking: communication and quorum sensing in the bacterial world. Phil Trans R Soc B 362: 1119-1134 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wang, H., Cai, T., Weng, M., Zhou, J., Cao, H., Zhong, Z., Zhu, J. (2006). Conditional production of acyl-homoserine lactone-type quorum-sensing signals in clinical isolates of enterobacteria.. J Med Microbiol 55: 1751-1753 [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»