Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution December 1994
Description:
The marine symbiotic bacterium Vibrio fischeri is striking for its ability both to emit light
and to dramatically regulate light emission using a cell-to-cell signalling mechanism
called autoinduction. The latter is mediated by a signal molecule called the
"autoinducer". The mechanistic bases of both luminescence and autoinduction are well
known in V. fischeri, but this knowledge is mostly derived from studies of the cloned
luminescence and autoinduction genes expressed in Escherichia coli. In this study,
luminescence and autoinduction mutations were systematically generated in V. fischeri to
explore aspects of luminescence and autoinduction not addressable in E. coli, such as the
adaptive significance of luminescence. Most dramatically, the mutants revealed the
presence of multiple autoinducers and autoinducer synthases in V. fischeri. One of the
autoinducers (autoinducer-2, or AI-2) was chemically purified and shown to be Noctanoyi-
L-homoserine lactone. The genetic locus encoding the AI-2 synthase was
cloned and designated ain (autoinducer). Manipulation of ain and AI-2 in V. jischeri
demonstrated that the function of AI-2 appears to be to inhibit rather than to promote
autoinduction.
Description:
The
WHOI Ocean Ventures Fund and the WHOI Molecular Biology Fund.
Keywords:
Bioluminescence
;
Marine bacteria
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Thesis
Format:
application/pdf
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