Editorial: LuxR Solos are Becoming Major Players in Cell-Cell Communication in Bacteria.

Vittorio Venturi,Brian M M Ahmer

doi:10.3389/fcimb.2015.00089

Abstract

Editorial: LuxR Solos are Becoming Major Players in Cell-Cell Communication in Bacteria.

Highlights

Quorum sensing (QS) is the ability of microbes to sense and respond to their own population density, which typically results in cooperative activity (Fuqua et al, 1994)
Homologous LuxR-LuxI pairs have been found throughout the Proteobacteria (Fuqua et al, 2001); there is divergence among the structures of acylhomoserine lactone class (AHL) produced and detected by LuxI-LuxR pairs, providing some species specificity to the systems
Several questions arise on the role of LuxR solos in bacteria and recent studies have revealed a number of roles including eavesdropping, intra-species and inter-kingdom signaling

Summary

Introduction

Quorum sensing (QS) is the ability of microbes to sense and respond to their own population density, which typically results in cooperative activity (Fuqua et al, 1994). Homologous LuxR-LuxI pairs have been found throughout the Proteobacteria (Fuqua et al, 2001); there is divergence among the structures of AHLs produced and detected by LuxI-LuxR pairs, providing some species specificity to the systems. Several studies and the sequencing of many bacterial genomes has evidenced the presence of many AHL/QS-related luxR-type genes, which are unpaired to a cognate luxI.

Results

Conclusion