IAI FigSearch
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
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 Taminiau, B.
Right arrow Articles by Letesson, J.-J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Taminiau, B.
Right arrow Articles by Letesson, J.-J.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, June 2002, p. 3004-3011, Vol. 70, No. 6
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.6.3004-3011.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification of a Quorum-Sensing Signal Molecule in the Facultative Intracellular Pathogen Brucella melitensis

Bernard Taminiau,1* Mavis Daykin,2 Simon Swift,2,3 Maria-Laura Boschiroli,4 Anne Tibor,1 Pascal Lestrate,1 Xavier De Bolle,1 David O'Callaghan,4 Paul Williams,2,3 and Jean-Jacques Letesson1

Unité de Recherche en Biologie Moléculaire (URBM), Laboratoire d'Immunologie et Microbiologie, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, 5000 Namur, Belgium,1 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Park, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD,2 Institute of Infections and Immunity, Queen's Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, United Kingdom,3 INSERM U431, Faculté de Médecine, 30900 Nîmes, France4

Received 8 November 2001/ Returned for modification 15 January 2002/ Accepted 21 March 2002

Brucella melitensis is a gram-negative alpha2-proteobacterium responsible for abortion in goats and for Malta fever in humans. This facultative intracellular pathogen invades and survives within both professional and nonprofessional phagocytes. A dichloromethane extract of spent culture supernatant from B. melitensis induces bioluminescence in an Escherichia coli acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) biosensor strain based upon the activity of the LasR protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. HPLC fractionation of the extract, followed by mass spectrometry, identified the major active molecule as N-dodecanoylhomoserine lactone (C12-HSL). This is the first report of the production of an acyl-HSL by an intracellular pathogen. The addition of synthetic C12-HSL to an early log phase culture of either B. melitensis or Brucella suis 1330 reduces the transcription of the virB operon, which contains virulence genes known to be required for intracellular survival. This mimics events seen during the stationary phase of growth and suggests that quorum sensing may play a role in the control of virulence in Brucella.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Unité de Recherche en Biologie Moléculaire (URBM), Laboratoire d'Immunologie et Microbiologie Facultés, Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium. Phone: 3281724409. Fax: 3281724420. E-mail: Bernard.Taminiau{at}fundp.ac.be.

Editor: V. J. DiRita

Infection and Immunity, June 2002, p. 3004-3011, Vol. 70, No. 6
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.6.3004-3011.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 2002 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.