Description
Quorum sensing is a regulatory process used by bacteria for controlling gene expression in response to increasing cell density. This regulatory process manifests itself with a variety of phenotypes including biofilm formation and virulence factor production. Coordinated gene expression is achieved by the production, release, and detection of small diffusible signal molecules called autoinducers. The N-
acylated homoserine lactones (AHLs) comprise one such class of autoinducers, each of which generally consists of a fatty acid coupled with homoserine lactone (HSL). AHLs vary in acyl group length (C
4-
C
18), in the substitution of C3 (hydrogen, hydroxyl, or oxo group) and in the presence or absence of one or more carbon-
carbon double bonds in the fatty acid chain. These differences confer signal specificity through the affinity of transcriptional regulators of the LuxR family. C18:1-
Δ
9 cis-
(L)-
HSL is a long-
chain AHL that may have antimicrobial activity and thus, might be used to inhibit pathogenesis by regulating bacerial quorum sensing signaling.
