A novel finding of intra-genus inhibition of quorum sensing in Vibrio bacteria

Quorum sensing is the process by which microbial cells sense and respond to the co-presence of others in their surrounding, through the detection of their autoinducers associated with gene expression regulation and thereby controlling many physiological processes, such as biofilm formation and/or bioluminescence, etc. In Vibrio bacteria, where quorum sensing is relatively well understood with three commonly known autoinducers (HAI-1, AI-2 and CAI-1), both intra-species and inter-species cell–cell communications occur but no inter-Vibrio-species quorum sensing inhibition has been reported. In this study, by screening bacterial isolated from soil and mud samples in a northern province in Vietnam, we discovered a strain that reduced more than 75% of the bioluminescence of a Vibrio harveyi, with evidence showing that such an inhibition might be associated with quorum sensing inhibition. The strain, designated as XTS1.2.9, was identified to be a Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacterium based on its morphological, physiological, biochemical and phylogenetic characteristics. We also tested XTS1.2.9 for its bioluminescence inhibition against different mutants lacking different quorum sensing autoinducers by using plate assays. The results showed that XTS1.2.9 inhibited the bioluminescence of the mutants having sensor 1, especially the one detecting CAI-1, and lacking sensor for AI-2; while it did not inhibit the mutants having only sensor for AI-2 and lacking sensor 1. Therefore, we propose an intra-genus quorum sensing inhibition mechanism involving CAI-1 to explain for such interactions between Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio harveyi. This phenomenon is reported for the first time and may have certain scientific and application implications.