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. 2019 Feb 27;89(3-4):167–211. doi: 10.3184/003685006783238335

Variations on a Theme: Diverse N-Acyl Homoserine Lactone-Mediated Quorum Sensing Mechanisms in Gram-Negative Bacteria

Debra Smith a, Jin-Hong Wang b, Jane E Swatton a, Peter Davenport a, Bianca Price a, Helga Mikkelsen a, Hannah Stickland a, Kahoko Nishikawa a,c, NoéMie Gardiol a, David R Spring d, Martin Welch a,✉
PMCID: PMC10368359  PMID: 17338438

Abstract

Many Gram-negative bacteria employ a mechanism of cell–cell communication known as quorum sensing (QS). The role of QS is to enable the cells in a culture to coordinate their gene expression profile with changes in the population cell density. The best characterized mechanisms of QS employ N-acylated homoserine lactones (AHLs) as signalling molecules. These AHLs are made by enzymes known as Luxl homologs, and accumulate in the culture supernatant at a rate proportional to the increase in cell density. Once the AHL concentration exceeds a certain threshold value, these ligands bind to intracellular receptors known as LuxR homologs. The latter are transcriptional regulators, whose activity alters upon binding the AHL ligand, thereby eliciting a change in gene transcription. Over the last five years, it has become increasingly obvious that this is a rather simplistic view of AHL-dependent QS, and that in fact, there is considerable diversity in the way in which Luxl-R homologs operate. The aim of the current review is to describe these variations on the basic theme, and to show how functional genomics is revolutionizing our understanding of QS-controlled regulons.

Keywords: N-acyl homoserine lactones, biofilms, cell-cell communication, Luxl, LuxR, quorum sensing, signal transduction

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