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The acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-type quorum sensing system affects growth rate, swimming motility and virulence in Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli

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Abstract

Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli is a Gram-negative bacterium and is the causal agent of bacterial fruit blotch (BFB) in cucurbits. In this study, the role played by the acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-type quorum sensing (QS) system in growth, swimming motility and virulence was characterized in A.avenae subsp. citrulli strain XJL12. The AHL synthase gene of the QS system from strain XJL12, defined as aacI, was cloned and characterized, and an aacI disruption mutant was generated. The aacI mutant XJL13 abolished the ability to produce AHL molecules, whereas the corresponding complemented strain CPXJL13 produced wild-type levels of AHL. The aacI mutant exhibited a significant decrease in growth rate relative to the wild type in minimal medium, and was partially impaired in swimming motility. In plants, the aacI mutant showed a significant reduction of virulence in watermelon fruits and melon seedlings when compared to the wild-type strain. However, the aacI mutation in strain XJL12 had no effects on biofilm formation, exopolysaccharide production, or induction of hypersentitive response in Nicotiana tabacum. Our data suggest that the AHL-type QS may play a key role in pathogen virulence and this may provide an opportunity to explore novel approaches for managing BFB in cucurbits by QS interference.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to professor Jun Zhu (Nanjing Agricultural University) for kindly providing AHL bioassay strain JZA1 and A. tumefaciens R10. We thank Dr. Tao Cai (Nanjing Agricultural University) for the technical assistant in AHL bioassay. We also thank Becky Shirk (University of Geogia, Dr. Suomeng Dong and Yu Chen (Nanjing Agricultural University) for their critical revisions of this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Basic Research program of China (“973” program, No. 2009CB119200), a U.S. National Science Foundation PIRE Grant (OISE 0730218) and Science and Technology support XinJiang project (No. 200840102-03).

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  1. Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095, Nanjing, China

    Jiaqin Fan, Guoliang Qian, Tao Chen, Yuqiang Zhao, Fengquan Liu & Baishi Hu

  2. Department of Plant Pathology, The University of Georgia, 4315 Miller Plant Sciences, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Ron R. Walcott

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  1. Jiaqin Fan
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  2. Guoliang Qian
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Correspondence to Baishi Hu.

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Jiaqin Fan, Guoliang Qian, Tao Chen contribute equally to this research.

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Fan, J., Qian, G., Chen, T. et al. The acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-type quorum sensing system affects growth rate, swimming motility and virulence in Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli . World J Microbiol Biotechnol 27, 1155–1166 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-010-0562-9

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