title: Caenorhabditis elegans senses bacterial autoinducers.
abstract: Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses virulence factors controlled by quorum sensing (QS) to kill Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we show that C. elegans is attracted to the acylated homoserine lactones (AHSLs) that mediate QS in P. aeruginosa. Our data also indicate that C. elegans can distinguish AHSLs and may use them to mediate aversive or attractive learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas 79430, USA.
authors.forename: Elmus
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Beale
authors.forename: Guigen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Man-Wah
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Kendra P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Rumbaugh
mesh_terms: D015107:4-Butyrolactone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000254:growth & development / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C088386:homoserine lactone; D015107:4-Butyrolactone