Possible influence of bacterial quorum sensing on the hydrolysis of sinking particulate organic carbon in marine environments

Quorum sensing control of phosphorus acquisition in Trichodesmium consortia.

Composition and fate of gas and oil released to the water column during the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Rapid microbial respiration of Deepwater Horizon oil in surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico

Microbial sources of intact polar diacylglycerolipids in the western North Atlantic Ocean

Phosphorus supply drives rapid turnover of membrane phospholipids in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonanna.

Bacterial and eukaryotic intact polar lipids in the eastern subtropical South Pacific: water-column distribution, planktonic sources, and fatty acid composition.

Abundance and diversity of heterotrophic bacterial cells assimilating 33P-phosphate in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean

Tracking hydrocarbon plume transport and biodegradation at Deepwater Horizon

Viral glycosphingolipids induce lytic infection and cell death in marine phytoplankton

Kinetic constraints on acylated homoserine lactone-based quorum sensing in marine environments

Phytoplankton in the ocean substitute lipids in response to phosphorus scarcity

An interlaboratory study of TEX86 and BIT analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Assessing nutrient limitation of Prochlorococcus in the North Pacific subtropical gyre by using an RNA capture method

Phospholipid synthesis rates in the eastern subtropical South Pacific Ocean

Barium in twilight zone suspended matter as a proxy for particulate organic carbon mineralization: Results for the North Pacific

Primary, new and export production in the NW Pacific Subarctic Gyre during the VERTIGO K2 experiments

Microbial vs. zooplankton control of sinking particle flux in the ocean's twilight zone

Phosphate availability: ultimate control of new nitrogen input by nitrogen fixation in the tropical Pacific Ocean

Growth and P-specific uptake rates of bacterial and phytoplanktonic communities in the Southeast Pacific (BISOSOPE cruise)

Microbes and the marine phosphorus cycle.

Revisiting carbon flux through the ocean's twilight zone.

Sulfolipids dramatically decrease phosphorus demand by picocyanobacteria in oligotrophic marine environments.

Quantifying 3H-thymidine incorporation rates by a phylogenetically defined group of marine planktonic bacteria (Bacteriodetes phylum).

Relationships between bacterial community structure, light, and carbon cycling in the eastern subarctic North Pacific

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Seasonal variation in sedimentary amino acids and the association of organic matter with mineral surfaces in a sandy eelgrass meadow

Evidence of tight coupling between bacteria and particulate organic carbon during seasonal stratification of Lake Michigan.

Microbiological, molecular biological and stable isotope evidence for nitrogen fixation in the open waters of Lake Michigan

General Interest Articles

Kinetic constraints on acylated homoserine lactone-based quorum sensing in marine environments

Hmelo, L. R. and Van Mooy, B.A.S.

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» Kinetic constraints on acylated homoserine lactone-based quorum sensing in marine environments

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» Full text of article can be found here.

Aquat. Microb. Ecol.54:127-133. (2009)

Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) via acylated homoserine lactones (AHLs) was discovered in the ocean, yet AHLs are expected to be very short-lived at seawater pH due to rapid abiotic degradation. Quorum quenching, the enzymatic degradation of AHLs, is also likely. To better understand the potential for QS to regulate behaviors of marine bacteria, we investigated the degradation of a variety of AHL molecules in several types of seawater media. We did this by incubating AHLs and tracking their concentration using HPLC/electrospray-ionization mass-spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS). AHL concentrations decreased with time, and degradation rate coefficients were calculated by applying a first-order rate law. The rate of abiotic degradation showed strong dependence on acyl chain length and the presence of 3-oxo substitutions on the acyl chain. We found that the rate of abiotic degradation of AHLs in artificial seawater was much slower than that predicted by an oft-cited equation for non-marine media that takes only pH into account. However, AHLs degraded more rapidly in natural seawater than in artificial seawater, an observation we found to be due to quorum quenching enzyme activity. By applying calculated degradation rates in a simple steady-state calculation, we suggest that despite the observed quorum quenching activity, AHLs are likely to be viable signals in organic particles and in other microbial ‘hotpsots’ in marine environments.

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