Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) is a communication mechanism between bacteria that allows specific processes to be controlled, such as biofilm formation, virulence factor expression, production of secondary metabolites and stress adaptation mechanisms such as bacterial competition systems including secretion systems (SS). These SS have an important role in bacterial communication. SS are ubiquitous; they are present in both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and in Mycobacterium sp. To date, 8 types of SS have been described (T1SS, T2SS, T3SS, T4SS, T5SS, T6SS, T7SS, and T9SS). They have global functions such as the transport of proteases, lipases, adhesins, heme-binding proteins, and amidases, and specific functions such as the synthesis of proteins in host cells, adaptation to the environment, the secretion of effectors to establish an infectious niche, transfer, absorption and release of DNA, translocation of effector proteins or DNA and autotransporter secretion. All of these functions can contribute to virulence and pathogenesis. In this review, we describe the known types of SS and discuss the ones that have been shown to be regulated by QS. Due to the large amount of information about this topic in some pathogens, we focus mainly on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Vibrio spp.
Highlights
Microorganisms coexist in competitive environments with other species, and they must develop different survival strategies to compete for space, nutrients and ecological niches
The T2SS, a complex structure composed of 15 proteins, named general secretion pathway proteins (Gsp) in E. coli (Korotkov et al, 2012), Eps in V. cholera (Abendroth et al, 2009; Sloup et al, 2017) and Xcp in P. aeruginosa (Filloux et al, 1998; Robert et al, 2005), has a wide range of substrates with diverse functions, all share one feature, an N-terminal signal which enables them pass to the periplasm via the Sec or Tat secretion mechanisms (Nivaskumar and Francetic, 2014; Green and Mecsas, 2016)
In P. aeruginosa, two Quorum sensing (QS) systems are linked to T2SS system by microarrays and proteomic studies (Chapon-Herve et al, 1997; Wagner et al, 2003; Michel et al, 2007), and diffusible signal factor (DSF)-type systems are linked to T2SS in Xanthomonas species through proteome analysis (Qian et al, 2013)
Summary
Microorganisms coexist in competitive environments with other species, and they must develop different survival strategies to compete for space, nutrients and ecological niches. The type I secretion system (T1SS), which has three structural elements (ABC transporter protein, a membrane fusion protein and an outer membrane factor), can transfer substrates across both bacterial membranes in Gram negative bacteria in a one-step process (Green and Mecsas, 2016).
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