Quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa - Equipment Supplement

项目总结 群体感应是细胞间通信的一种形式，它允许细菌群体的成员 以依赖于细胞密度的方式协调合作活动。已证明仲裁感知起到了作用 在铜绿假单胞菌和其他病原体的毒力中起着重要作用，而铜绿假单胞菌具有 成为研究群体感应、交流和合作的基本生物学原理的模型 总体而言。我们对铜绿假单胞菌酰基高丝氨酸内酯群体感应的研究是努力的基础 旨在操作感染期间的群体感应，在复杂的微生物群落中，并用于 生物技术应用。我们一直并将继续对以下基本机制感兴趣 群体感应，有利于群体感应基因表达控制的选择压力，以及成本 以及铜绿假单胞菌群体感应的好处。法定人数感应功能，用于控制和协调 合作行为。很明显，合作是一种进化的生物现象，但确实存在 关于允许稳定合作的选择性力量存在相当大的争议。费用和费用是多少 协作性的好处，以及通过群体感应控制协作性的可能优势是什么？ 在过去的五年里，我们在分子水平上理解 铜绿假单胞菌的合作是稳定的，我们如何才能破坏它的稳定。这些进展对 种群生物学领域和我们对铜绿假单胞菌群体感应在某些情况下所扮演的角色的理解 感染。我们继续的研究将使用分子遗传学方法来研究群体感应。 控制基因表达，我们将继续将新的技术和概念引入到已经 成为微生物研究的一个充满活力的领域。具体地说，我们将询问有关以下决定因素的问题 信号的专一性和细菌物种相互窃听的可能性。我们将尝试定义 信号产生和接收选择性的决定因素。我们想要更好地了解 在人类感染期间的群体感应，我们最初强调的是困扰着我们的慢性肺部感染 患有遗传性疾病囊性纤维化的人。我们最近了解到，最不了解的一个 RhlR是铜绿假单胞菌群体感应电路的组成部分，是铜绿假单胞菌群体感应的关键元件。 铜绿假单胞菌。我们最近的工作使我们克服了了解RhlR的主要障碍， 无法在体外进行研究。这项工作的长期愿景是了解群体感应的方式和原因 电路通常是分层的，以了解群体感应系统的多样性如何演变为其 目前的状态，并获得一个概念框架来解释沟通和合作活动是如何 来提供细菌群体活动的稳定性，以及我们如何能够利用这些知识来 操纵细菌种群。

PROJECT SUMMARY Quorum sensing is a form of cell-cell communication that allows members of bacterial populations to coordinate cooperative activities in a cell density-dependent fashion. Quorum sensing has been shown to play a significant role in the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other pathogens, and P. aeruginosa has become a model for studies of basic biological principles of quorum sensing, communication, and cooperation in general. Our research on P. aeruginosa acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing is fundamental to efforts aimed at manipulating quorum sensing during infections, in complex microbial communities, and for biotechnological applications. We have been, and will continue to be, interested in basic mechanisms of quorum sensing, the selective pressures favoring quorum-sensing control of gene expression, and the costs and benefits of quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa. Quorum sensing functions to control and coordinate cooperative behaviors. It is clear that cooperativity is an evolved biological phenomenon, but there is considerable controversy about the selective forces allowing stable cooperativity. What are the costs and benefits of cooperativity, and what are the possible advantages to controlling cooperativity by quorum sensing? In the past five years we have made enormous advances in understanding at a molecular level how cooperation is stabilized in P. aeruginosa and how we can destabilize it. These advances are important to the field of population biology and to our understanding of the roles P. aeruginosa quorum sensing plays in certain infections. Our continued research will use molecular genetic approaches to investigate the quorum sensing control of gene expression, and we will continue to introduce new techniques and concepts into what has become a vibrant field of microbiological research. Specifically we will ask questions about the determinants of signal specificity and the potential for bacterial species to eavesdrop on each other. We will attempt to define the determinants of signal generation and reception selectivity. We want to better understand the role of quorum sensing during human infections with our initial emphasis on the chronic lung infections that plague people with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis. We have recently learned that one of the least understood components of P. aeruginosa quorum sensing circuitry, RhlR is a key quorum-sensing element in P. aeruginosa. Our recent work has allowed us to overcome the major obstacle in learning about RhlR, an inability to study it in vitro. The long term vision of this work is to understand how and why quorum sensing circuits are often layered, to understand how the diversity of quorum sensing systems has evolved to its current state, and to attain a conceptual framework to explain how communication and cooperative activities are wired to provide stability of bacterial group activities and how we might be able to use the knowledge to manipulate bacterial populations.