Quorum sensing autoinducers AHLs protect Shewanella baltica against phage infection

Abstract

Quorum sensing (QS) plays an important role in phage-host interactions. Shewanella baltica can't produce the N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) signal molecules but can eavesdrop on exogenous AHLs through its LuxR receptor. However, no clear evidence exists regarding the involvement of AHLs-mediated QS systems in S. baltica in regulating phage infection. Here, we report that AHLs modulated the phage resistance of S. baltica OS155. Specifically, we characterized a S. baltica phage vB_Sb_QDWS and preliminarily identified that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is an important receptor for phage vB_Sb_QDWS. AHLs could protect S. baltica against phage infection by decreasing LPS-mediated phage adsorption. The expression of genes galU and tkt, which are essential for LPS synthesis, down-regulated significantly in response to AHLs autoinducers. Our finding confirms the important roles of QS in virus-host interactions and would be helpful to develop novel phage strategies for food spoilage control.