Improved bioassay for detecting autoinducer of Rhodovulum sulfidophilum

Quorum sensing is a bacterial gene regulation system that enables prompt environmental adaptation in response to cell density. Quorum sensing is driven by an extracellularly secreted chemical signal called autoinducer. Gram-negative bacteria produce one or several types of N-acylhomoserine lactone (AHL) as autoinducers. Our previous study suggests that the gram-negative marine photosynthetic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum produces AHL in the early stationary phase and plays a role in maintaining the bacterial cell aggregates called "floc". We performed conventional bioassay to identify AHL production by using Chromobacterium violaceum VIR07, which produces violet pigment (violacein) in response to AHL with side chains ranging from C10 to C18 in length. However, we were not able to observe the violacein with good reproducibility, suggesting that inhibitory chemical compounds co-existed in the AHL extract. Therefore, we improved the extraction method; the ethyl acetate-extracted AHLs were fractionated by using reverse phase TLC. By using the re-extracted AHLs for the bioassay, we observed an obvious production of violacein. This result clearly indicates that R. sulfidophilum produces AHLs with side chains ranging from C10 to C18 in length and suggests the utility of improved bioassay for AHL detection.