Autoinducer-2 plays a crucial role in gut colonization and probiotic functionality of Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003.

ABSTRACT: In the present study we show that luxS of Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003 is involved in the production of the interspecies signaling molecule autoinducer-2 (AI-2), and that this gene is essential for gastrointestinal colonization of a murine host, while it is also involved in providing protection against Salmonella infection in Caenorhabditis elegans. We demonstrate that a B. breve luxS-insertion mutant is significantly more susceptible to iron chelators than the WT strain and that this sensitivity can be partially reverted in the presence of the AI-2 precursor DPD. Furthermore, we show that several genes of an iron starvation-induced gene cluster, which are downregulated in the luxS-insertion mutant and which encodes a presumed iron-uptake system, are transcriptionally upregulated under in

SUBMITTER: Christiaen SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4037206 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature