N-acyl homoserine lactones in diverse Pectobacterium and Dickeya plant pathogens: diversity, abundance, and involvement in virulence.
Soft-rot bacteria Pectobacterium and Dickeya use N-acyl homoserine lactones (NAHSLs) as diffusible signals for coordinating quorum sensing communication. The production of NAHSLs was investigated in a set of reference strains and recently-collected isolates, which belong to six species and share the ability to infect the potato host plant. All the pathogens produced different NAHSLs, among which the 3-oxo-hexanoyl- and the 3-oxo-octanoyl-L-homoserine lactones represent at least 90% of total produced NAHSL-amounts. The level of NAHSLs varied from 0.6 to 2 pg/cfu. The involvement of NAHSLs in tuber maceration was investigated by electroporating a quorum quenching vector in each of the bacterial pathogen strains. All the NAHSL-lactonase expressing strains produced a lower amount of NAHSLs as compared to those harboring the empty vector. Moreover, all except Dickeya dadantii 3937 induced a lower level of symptoms in potato tuber assay. Noticeably, aggressiveness appeared to be independent of both nature and amount of produced signals. This work highlights that quorum sensing similarly contributed to virulence in most of the tested Pectobacterium and Dickeya, even the strains had been isolated recently or during the past decades. Thus, these key regulatory-molecules appear as credible targets for developing anti-virulence strategies against these plant pathogens.
Laboratoire de Microbiologie Signaux et Microenvironnement, Normandie Université, Université de Rouen EA 4312, IUT Evreux, Evreux, France. alexandre.crepin@etu.univ-rouen.fr
Alexandre
A
Crépin
Amélie
A
Beury-Cirou
Corinne
C
Barbey
Christine
C
Farmer
Valérie
V
Hélias
Jean-François
JF
Burini
Denis
D
Faure
Xavier
X
Latour
D054742:Acyl-Butyrolactones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D044043:Pectobacterium / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D053038:Quorum Sensing; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D014774:Virulence
D054742:Acyl-Butyrolactones