We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Membrane vesicles traffic signals and facilitate group activities in a prokaryote.
- Authors
Mashburn, Lauren M.; Whiteley, Marvin
- Abstract
Many bacteria use extracellular signals to communicate and coordinate social activities, a process referred to as quorum sensing. Many quorum signals have significant hydrophobic character, and how these signals are trafficked between bacteria within a population is not understood. Here we show that the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa packages the signalling molecule 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4-quinolone (pseudomonas quinolone signal; PQS) into membrane vesicles that serve to traffic this molecule within a population. Removal of these vesicles from the bacterial population halts cell–cell communication and inhibits PQS-controlled group behaviour. We also show that PQS actively mediates its own packaging and the packaging of other antimicrobial quinolines produced by P. aeruginosa into vesicles. These findings illustrate that a prokaryote possesses a signal trafficking system with features common to those used by higher organisms and outlines a novel mechanism for delivery of a signal critical for coordinating group behaviour in P. aeruginosa.
- Subjects
PROKARYOTES; MICROORGANISMS; BACTERIA; PSEUDOMONAS aeruginosa; CELL membranes
- Publication
Nature, 2005, Vol 437, Issue 7057, p422
- ISSN
0028-0836
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nature03925