title: The Prevalence of Functional Quorum-Sensing Systems in Recently Emerged Vibrio cholerae Toxigenic Strains.
abstract: Vibrio cholerae live in aquatic environments and cause cholera disease. Like many other bacteria, V. cholerae use quorum-sensing (QS) systems to control various cellular functions, such as pathogenesis and biofilm formation. However, some V. cholerae strains are naturally QS-defective, including defective mutations in the quorum sensing master regulator HapR. Here we examined the QS functionality of 602 V. cholerae clinical and environmental strains isolated in China from 1960-2007, by measuring QS-regulated gene expression. We found that a greater percentage of the toxigenic strains (ctxAB(+)) had functional QS as compared to the non-toxigenic strains (ctxAB(-)), and that this trend increased significantly over time. We hypothesize that QS provides adaptive value in V. cholerae pathogenic settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, MOA Key Lab of Microbiological Engineering of Agricultural Environment, Nanjing Agricultural University, China.
authors.forename: Yunduan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Haili
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zengtao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kan
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu