Quorum sensing modulates bacterial virulence and colonization dynamics of the gastrointestinal pathogen Citrobacter rodentium

Quorum Sensing (QS) is a form of cell-to-cell communication that enables bacteria to modify behavior according to their population density. While QS has been proposed as a potential intervention against pathogen infection, QS-mediated communication within the mammalian digestive tract remains understudied. Using an LC-MS/MS approach, we discovered that Citrobacter rodentium, a natural murine pathogen used to model human infection by pathogenic Escherichia coli, utilizes the CroIR system to produce three QS-molecules. We then profiled their accumulation both in vitro and across different gastrointestinal sites over the course of infection. Importantly, we found that in the absence of QS capabilities the virulence of C. rodentium is enhanced. This highlights the role of QS as an effective mechanism to regulate virulence according to the pathogen’s spatio-temporal context to optimize colonization and transmission success. These results also demonstrate that inhibiting QS may not always be an effective strategy for the control of virulence.