Elucidating the Interplay between the ComRS and the ComABCDE Quorum Sensing Circuitries in Streptococci

在化学系生命过程化学项目的支持下，来自内华达州大学里诺分校的Tal-Gan教授正在研究同一种细菌内的多种通信途径如何影响细菌行为。细菌利用化学信号的语言来相互交流，评估它们的环境，并在种群水平上协调行为变化。一些细菌物种产生多种化学信号，每种信号对应于不同的信息，并导致不同的行为反应。然而，在某些情况下，两种不同的信号可以通过替代的通信途径导致类似的行为反应。这项研究旨在从分子水平上描述同一种细菌内不同的通讯途径如何相互影响，从而间接影响其他通讯途径调节的行为。了解不同通信途径之间的相互作用和层次结构可以为管理和控制不同环境中的细菌行为铺平道路。这项研究将使本科生和研究生获得化学和微生物学方面的专业培训，从合成肽化学和分析表征到微生物学和分子生物学技术。该项目也将被整合到一个外展计划，旨在提供本科生和教师从拉斐特学院，一个小的文科学院在伊斯顿，宾夕法尼亚州，在动手研究的化学和biology.This项目的界面的经验，目的是利用变形链球菌作为一个模型系统，研究之间的相互作用和层次结构的ComABCDE样和ComRS群体感应电路在分子水平。链球菌的遗传转化能力由感受态调节子调控，并依赖于称为群体感应（QS）的细胞-细胞信号传导机制。在一些链球菌物种中，感受态调节子由称为ComABCDE回路的基于双组分的QS回路组成，而在其他物种中，感受态调节子由称为ComRS回路的RRNPP型QS回路组成。重要的是，某些链球菌同时具有ComABCDE样回路和ComRS样回路。该跨学科项目将化学生物学技术与传统微生物学方法相结合，以实现以下目标：1）描述S.变异体;以及2）将控制类ComABCDE和ComRS QS电路之间相互作用的规则扩展和推广到其他细菌物种。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With the support of the Chemistry of Life Processes program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Tal-Gan from the University of Nevada, Reno is studying how multiple communication pathways within the same species of bacteria affect bacterial behavior. Bacteria utilize a language of chemical signals to communicate with each other, assess their environment, and coordinate behavioral changes at the population level. Some bacterial species produce multiple chemical signals, each of which correspond to a different message and result in different behavioral responses. However, in some cases, two different signals can lead to a similar behavioral response through alternative communication pathways. The proposed study aims to characterize, at the molecular level, how different communication pathways within the same species of bacteria affect one another and consequently indirectly affect behaviors regulated by the other communication pathway. Understanding the interplay and hierarchy between different communication pathways could pave the way to manage and control bacterial behavior in diverse environmental niches. This study will allow undergraduate and graduate students to acquire specialized training in both chemistry and microbiology, from synthetic peptide chemistry and analytical characterization to microbiology and molecular biology techniques. This project also will be integrated into an outreach program aimed at providing undergraduate students and faculty from Lafayette College, a small liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania, experience in hands-on research at the interface of chemistry and biology.This project aims to utilize Streptococcus mutans as a model system to study the interplay and hierarchy between the ComABCDE-like and ComRS quorum sensing circuitries at the molecular level. Competence for genetic transformation in streptococci is regulated by the competence regulon and relies on a cell-cell signaling mechanism, termed quorum sensing (QS). In some streptococci species the competence regulon is composed of a two-component-based QS circuit, termed the ComABCDE circuitry, while in other species, the competence regulon is composed of an RRNPP-type QS circuit, termed the ComRS circuitry. Importantly, some species of streptococci possess both a ComABCDE-like circuit and a ComRS-like circuitry. The proposed interdisciplinary project will integrate chemical biology techniques with traditional microbiology approaches to pursue the following objectives: 1) delineate the molecular mechanisms that govern the interplay between the ComABCDE-like and ComRS QS circuits in S. mutans; and 2) expand and generalize the rules governing the interplay between the ComABCDE-like and ComRS QS circuits to other bacterial species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.