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Infection and Immunity, August 2002, p. 4099-4105, Vol. 70, No. 8
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.8.4099-4105.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

LuxS-Mediated Quorum Sensing in Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme Disease Spirochete

Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky 40536-0298

Received 27 February 2002/ Returned for modification 9 April 2002/ Accepted 29 April 2002

The establishment of Borrelia burgdorferi infection involves numerous interactions between the bacteria and a variety of vertebrate host and arthropod vector tissues. This complex process requires regulated synthesis of many bacterial proteins. We now demonstrate that these spirochetes utilize a LuxS/autoinducer-2 (AI-2)-based quorum-sensing mechanism to regulate protein expression, the first system of cell-cell communication to be described in a spirochete. The luxS gene of B. burgdorferi was identified and demonstrated to encode a functional enzyme by complementation of an Escherichia coli luxS mutant. Cultured B. burgdorferi responded to AI-2 by altering the expression levels of a large number of proteins, including the complement regulator factor H-binding Erp proteins. Through this mechanism, a population of Lyme disease spirochetes may synchronize production of specific proteins needed for infection processes.

Editor: D. L. Burns

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