RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Peptide-based quorum sensing systems in Paenibacillus polymyxa JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 767517 DO 10.1101/767517 A1 Voichek, Maya A1 Maaß, Sandra A1 Kroniger, Tobias A1 Becher, Dörte A1 Sorek, Rotem YR 2019 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/12/767517.abstract AB Paenibacillus polymyxa is an agriculturally important plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium. Many Paenibacillus species are known to be engaged in complex bacteria-bacteria and bacteria-host interactions, which in other species were shown to necessitate quorum sensing communication. However, to date no quorum sensing systems have been described in Paenibacillus. Here we show that the type strain P. polymyxa ATCC 842 encodes at least 16 peptide-based communication systems. Each of these systems is comprised of a pro-peptide that is secreted to the growth medium and processed to generate a mature short peptide. Each peptide has a cognate intracellular receptor of the RRNPP family, and we show that external addition of P. polymyxa communication peptides leads to reprogramming of the transcriptional response. We found that these quorum sensing systems are conserved across hundreds of species belonging to the Paenibacillaceae family, with some species encoding more than 25 different peptide-receptor pairs, representing a record number of quorum sensing systems encoded in a single genome.