Phage-mediated Dispersal of Biofilm and Distribution of Bacterial Virulence Genes Is Induced by Quorum Sensing

PLoS Pathogens

Kirsten Jung¹  Christoph Klein¹  Johannes Huebner²  Jacek Puchalka³  Dominique Wobser³  Antoni P. A. Hendrickx³  Friederike S. Rossmann⁴  Matthias Reiger⁴  Tomas Racek⁵  Ann-Kristin Diederich⁶  Elaine M. Rabener⁶ 

[1] Department of Biology I, Microbiology, Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany;Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands;Department of Pediatrics, Dr. von Hauner Children´s Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany;Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany;Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany;German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partnersite Munich, Munich, Germany

关键词: Enterococcus faecalis;    Bacterial biofilms;    Bacteriophages;    Enterococcus infections;    Probiotics;    Virulence factors;    Biofilms;    Analysis of variance;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1004653

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

The microbiome and the phage meta-genome within the human gut are influenced by antibiotic treatments. Identifying a novel mechanism, here we demonstrate that bacteria use the universal communication molecule AI-2 to induce virulence genes and transfer them via phage release. High concentrations (i.e. 100 μM) of AI-2 promote dispersal of bacteria from already established biofilms, and is associated with release of phages capable of infecting other bacteria. Enterococcus faecalis V583ΔABC harbours 7 prophages in its genome, and a mutant deficient in one of these prophages (i.e. prophage 5) showed a greatly reduced dispersal of biofilm. Infection of a probiotic E. faecalis strain without lytic prophages with prophage 5 resulted in increased biofilm formation and also in biofilm dispersal upon induction with AI-2. Infection of the probiotic E. faecalis strain with phage-containing supernatants released through AI-2 from E. faecalis V583ΔABC resulted in a strong increase in pathogenicity of this strain. The polylysogenic probiotic strain was also more virulent in a mouse sepsis model and a rat endocarditis model. Both AI-2 and ciprofloxacin lead to phage release, indicating that conditions in the gastrointestinal tract of hospitalized patients treated with antibiotics might lead to distribution of virulence genes to apathogenic enterococci and possibly also to other commensals or even to beneficial probiotic strains.

【 授权许可】

CC BY