Deciphering the Symbiotic Significance of Quorum Sensing Systems of HH103.

Quorum sensing (QS) is a bacterial cell-to-cell signaling mechanism that collectively regulates and synchronizes behaviors by means of small diffusible chemical molecules. In rhizobia, QS systems usually relies on the synthesis and detection of -acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs). In the model bacterium functions regulated by the QS systems TraI-TraR and SinI-SinR(-ExpR) include plasmid transfer, production of surface polysaccharides, motility, growth rate and nodulation. These systems are also present in other bacteria of the genus, with variations at the species and strain level. In NGR234 phenotypes regulated by QS are plasmid transfer, growth rate, sedimentation, motility, biofilm formation, EPS production and copy number of the symbiotic plasmid (pSym). The analysis of the HH103 genomes reveal also the presence of both QS systems. In this manuscript we characterized the QS systems of HH103, determining that both TraI and SinI AHL-synthases proteins are responsible of the production of short- and long-chain AHLs, respectively, at very low and not physiological concentrations. Interestingly, the main HH103 -type genes, and , are split into two ORFs, suggesting that in HH103 the corresponding carboxy-terminal proteins, which contain the DNA-binding motives, may control target genes in an AHL-independent manner. The presence of a split gene is common in other strains.