Title: Extraction of violacein from Chromobacterium violaceum provides a new quantitative bioassay for N-acyl homoserine lactone autoinducers
Abstract: Fatty acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) are used as extracellular quorum sensing signals by a variety of Gram-negative bacteria. By activating proteins belonging to the LuxR family of transcriptional regulators, these signal metabolites allow population density-dependent gene regulation within a species, as well as interspecies communication among different bacteria. The experimental detection of AHLs is important in the identification of quorum sensing capabilities in bacteria. Chromobacterium violaceum is a Gram-negative bacterium that produces the purple pigment violacein in response to the presence of the AHL N-hexanoyl homoserine lactone (C6HSL). The mini-Tn5 mutant strain C. violaceum CV0blu is deficient in the production of this signal molecule but retains the ability to synthesize violacein in response to the presence of C6HSL and a variety of other short-chain AHLs. We have developed a quantitative bioassay that measures the amount of violacein produced by this strain in response to the presence of different concentrations of various AHL molecules. This new assay provides a means of quantifying the amount of a given AHL present in a bacterial culture and can be used to measure differences in AHL production among different strains or different batch cultures of a given species.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 222
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