Production of acylated homoserine lactone by Gram-positive bacteria isolated from marine water

Acylated homoserine lactone (AHL)-based quorum sensing (QS) has been reported to be present only in Gram-negative microorganisms. Isolation of a novel Gram-positive microorganism from sea water, capable of producing AHL, is reported here. The isolate (GenBank: JF915892, designated as MPO) belonging to the Exiguobacterium genera is capable of inducing the AHL bioreporters, namely Chromobacterium violaceum CV026, Agrobacterium tumefaceins A136, and E.coli JM 109(psb1075). This inducer is characterized as C3-oxo-octanoyl homoserine lactone (OOHL), and its production reaches a maximum of 15.6gL1, during the stationary growth phase of the organism. MPO extract when exogenously added inhibits the formation of biofilm for the same organism and lowers the extracellular polymeric substances, indicating an AHL-associated phenotypic trait. The isolated sequence of a probable LuxR homolog from MPO (designated as ExgR) shows similar functional domains and contains conserved residues in LuxR from other known bacterial QS LuxR regulators. Also present immediately downstream to ExgR was found a sequence showing homology to known LuxI synthase of Pseudomonas putida. qPCR analysis suggests an increment in exgR mRNA on addition of AHL, further proving the role of ExgR as a QS regulator.