Torres, M.A.; Valdez, A.L.; de Lourdes Olea, C.; Figueroa, M.F.; Nieto‐Peñalver, C.G. Multi‐focused Laboratory Experiments Based on Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching for Acquiring Microbial Physiology Concepts. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 2024, doi:10.1002/bmb.21815.
Torres, M.A.; Valdez, A.L.; de Lourdes Olea, C.; Figueroa, M.F.; Nieto‐Peñalver, C.G. Multi‐focused Laboratory Experiments Based on Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching for Acquiring Microbial Physiology Concepts. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 2024, doi:10.1002/bmb.21815.
Torres, M.A.; Valdez, A.L.; de Lourdes Olea, C.; Figueroa, M.F.; Nieto‐Peñalver, C.G. Multi‐focused Laboratory Experiments Based on Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching for Acquiring Microbial Physiology Concepts. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 2024, doi:10.1002/bmb.21815.
Torres, M.A.; Valdez, A.L.; de Lourdes Olea, C.; Figueroa, M.F.; Nieto‐Peñalver, C.G. Multi‐focused Laboratory Experiments Based on Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching for Acquiring Microbial Physiology Concepts. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 2024, doi:10.1002/bmb.21815.
Abstract
After a time away from the classrooms and laboratories due to the global pandemic, the return to the teaching activities during the semester represented a challenge to both teachers and students. Our particular situation in a Microbial Physiology course was the necessity of imparting in a shorter time, laboratory practices that usually take longer. This article describes a two-week long laboratory exercise that covers several concepts in an interrelated way: conjugation as a gene transfer mechanism, regulation of microbial physiology, production of secondary metabolites, degradation of macromolecules and biofilm formation. Utilizing a Quorum Quenching (QQ) strategy, the Quorum Sensing (QS) system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is first attenuated. Then, phenotypes regulated by QS are evidenced. QS is a regulatory mechanism of the microbial physiology that relays on signal molecules. QS is related in P. aeruginosa to several virulence factors, some of which are exploited in the laboratory practices presented in this work. QQ is phenomenon by which QS is interrupted or attenuated. We utilized a QQ approach based on the enzymatic degradation of the P. aeruginosa QS signals in order to put in evidence QS-regulated traits that are relevant for our Microbial Physiology course.
Keywords
Microbial physiology; Quorum Sensing; Quorum Quenching; Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
