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A new family of quorum sensing pheromones synthesized using S‐adenosylmethionine and Acyl‐CoAs
Author(s) -
Winans Stephen C.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07551.x
Subject(s) - sex pheromone , biology , quorum sensing , pheromone , proteobacteria , vibrio cholerae , vibrio , class (philosophy) , computational biology , ecology , bacteria , zoology , genetics , artificial intelligence , biofilm , 16s ribosomal rna , computer science
Summary It is now widely accepted that populations of bacterial cells often co‐ordinate their behaviour via diffusible chemical signals. Many different signals have been documented, but they fall into a relatively small number of families. One such signal, CAI‐1, from Vibrio cholerae consists of a substituted 13‐carbon alkane. In this issue, Bassler and colleagues provide evidence that CAI‐1 exemplifies an entirely new class of pheromones. They also show that one species of Vibrio synthesizes and detects just one such pheromone, while another species synthesizes and detects several. Bioinformatics and data from another group indicate that this new class of signals may be widespread among beta‐ and gamma‐proteobacteria.