A talk during dinner can be life-saving for bacteria

Pieter Moons, Eva Wevers, Rob Van Houdt, Abram Aertsen, Chris W. Michiels, Natalie Leys

    Research outputpeer-review

    Abstract

    Among the Enterobacteriaceae, Serratia species are members of the subgroup that initially uses mixed acids as end products of fermentation processes but in time avoid lethal acidification of their environment by channeling a large amount of pyruvate from glycolysis into the butanediol pathway. We set out to investigate how this switch is regulated. Experiments indicate that in Serratia plymuthica RVH1 quorum sensing regulates the switch from mixed acids to butanediol fermentation. In a next step a screen for random transposon mutants that display both acidification and absence of acetoin production enabled us to isolate a RVH1 butanediol mutant in which a budB homologue, coding for alpha-acetolactate synthase, was inactivated. Subsequent cloning strategies led to the sequence of the complete budRAB operon, in which BudR is the regulator that responds to low pH conditions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationCommunications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Science
    Place of PublicationGhent, Belgium
    Pages47-50
    StatePublished - Oct 2007
    Event2007 - PhD Symposium on Applied Biological Sciences - Leuven
    Duration: 17 Oct 200717 Oct 2007

    Publication series

    NameCommunications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Science
    Number72(1)

    Conference

    Conference2007 - PhD Symposium on Applied Biological Sciences
    Country/TerritoryBelgium
    CityLeuven
    Period2007-10-172007-10-17

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