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Novel Quorum Sensing Activity in East Antarctic Soil Bacteria

Sin Yin Wong, James C. Charlesworth, View ORCID ProfileNicole Benaud, Brendan P. Burns, Belinda C. Ferrari
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/749861
Sin Yin Wong
1School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
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James C. Charlesworth
1School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
2Australian Centre for Astrobiology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
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Nicole Benaud
1School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
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  • ORCID record for Nicole Benaud
Brendan P. Burns
1School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
2Australian Centre for Astrobiology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
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Belinda C. Ferrari
1School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
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  • For correspondence: b.ferrari@unsw.edu.au
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ABSTRACT

Antarctica, being the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth, represents the most extreme environment a living organism can thrive in. Under constant exposure to harsh environmental threats, terrestrial Antarctica remains home to a great diversity of microorganisms, indicating that the soil bacteria must have adapted a range of survival strategies that require cell-to-cell communication. Survival strategies include secondary metabolite production, biofilm formation, bioluminescence, symbiosis, conjugation, sporulation and motility, all of which are often regulated by quorum sensing (QS), a type of bacterial communication. Up to now, such mechanisms have not been explored in terrestrial Antarctica. Here, for the first time, LuxI/LuxR-based quorum sensing (QS) activity was delineated in soil bacterial isolates recovered from Adams Flat, in the Vestfold Hills region of East Antarctica. Interestingly, we identified the production of potential homoserine lactones (HSLs) ranging from medium to long chain length in 19 bacterial species using three biosensors, namely Agrobacterium tumefaciens NTL4, Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 and Escherichia coli MT102, in conjunction with thin layer chromatography (TLC). The majority of detectable HSLs were from gram-positive microorganisms not previously known to produce HSLs. This discovery further expands our understand of the microbial community capable of this type of communication, as well as providing insights into physiological adaptations of microorganisms that allow them to survive in the harsh Antarctic environment.

IMPORTANCE Quorum sensing, a type of bacterial communication, is widely known to regulate many processes including those that confer survival advantage. However, little is known about communication by bacteria thriving within Antarctic soils. Employing a combination of bacteria biosensors, analytical techniques, and genome mining, we found a variety of Antarctic soil bacteria speaking a common language, via the LuxI/LuxR-based quorum sensing, thus potentially supporting survival in a mixed microbial community. This is the first report of quorum sensing activity in Antarctic soils and has provided a platform for studying physiological adaptations of microorganisms that allow them to not just survive but thrive in the harsh Antarctic environment.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted August 29, 2019.
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Novel Quorum Sensing Activity in East Antarctic Soil Bacteria
Sin Yin Wong, James C. Charlesworth, Nicole Benaud, Brendan P. Burns, Belinda C. Ferrari
bioRxiv 749861; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/749861
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Novel Quorum Sensing Activity in East Antarctic Soil Bacteria
Sin Yin Wong, James C. Charlesworth, Nicole Benaud, Brendan P. Burns, Belinda C. Ferrari
bioRxiv 749861; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/749861

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