Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE

The Korean Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (한국생물공학회)
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Development of a Sensitive Bioassay Method for Quorum Sensing Inhibitor Screening Using a Recombinant Agrobacterium tumefaciens

  • Kim Yeon Hee (Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Institute for Environmental Technology and Industry, Pusan National University) ;
  • Kim Young Hee (Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Institute for Environmental Technology and Industry, Pusan National University) ;
  • Kim Jung Sun (Department of Biotechnology, Dongseo University) ;
  • Park Sunghoon (Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Institute for Environmental Technology and Industry, Pusan National University)
  • Published : 2005.08.01
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Abstract

Acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) are known to be the triggering molecules in the quorum sensing mechanism of many gram-negative bacteria. In order to detect AHL inhibitors that are potential biofilm inhibitors, a convenient and sensitive bioassay was developed based on the $\beta$-galactosidase activity ($\beta$-GAL) of a recombinant Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain. A series of commercially available AHLs were tested for inducing $\beta$-GAL at varying concentrations in agar-plate and liquid cultures of the reporter strain. All AHLs tested exhibited a concentration­dependent induction, and octanoyl homoserine lactone (OHL) showed the highest sensitivity with a detection limit of 0.1 nM in the liquid culture assay. When fimbrolide, a known quorum sensing inhibitor, was added, induction of $\beta$-GAL by OHL was repressed. The repression at a constant OHL concentration was dependent on the fimbrolide concentration with the detection limit below 1 ppm, indicating that this assay is a sensitive method for screening AHL inhibitors.

Keywords

References

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