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Int J Med Microbiol

Title:		Functionality of Borrelia burgdorferi LuxS: the Lyme disease spirochete produces and responds to the pheromone autoinducer-2 and lacks a complete activated-methyl cycle
Author(s):		von Lackum K; Babb K; Riley SP; Wattier RL; Bykowski T; Stevenson B;
Address:		"Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, MS 415 Chandler Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky 40536-0298, USA"
Journal Title:		Int J Med Microbiol
Year:		2006
Volume:		20060310
Issue:
Page Number:		92 - 102
DOI:		10.1016/j.ijmm.2005.12.011
ISSN/ISBN:		1438-4221 (Print) 1438-4221 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Borrelia burgdorferi produces Pfs and LuxS enzymes for breakdown of the toxic byproducts of methylation reactions, producing 4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione (DPD), adenine, and homocysteine. DPD and its spontaneously rearranged derivatives constitute a class of bacterial pheromones named autoinducer-2 (AI-2). We describe that B. burgdorferi produces DPD during laboratory cultivation. Furthermore, addition of in vitro synthesized DPD to cultured B. burgdorferi resulted in altered expression levels of a specific set of bacterial proteins, among which is the outer surface lipoprotein VlsE. While a large number of bacteria utilize homocysteine, the other LuxS product, for synthesis of methionine as part of the activated-methyl cycle, B. burgdorferi was found to lack that ability. We propose that the main function of B. burgdorferi LuxS is to synthesize DPD and that the Lyme disease spirochete utilizes a form of DPD as a pheromone to control gene expression"
Keywords:		"Antigens, Bacterial/biosynthesis Bacterial Proteins/biosynthesis/*metabolism Borrelia burgdorferi/drug effects/*enzymology Carbon-Sulfur Lyases Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial Homoserine/*analogs & derivatives/biosynthesis/pharmacology Lactones/*pha;"
Notes:		"Medlinevon Lackum, Kate Babb, Kelly Riley, Sean P Wattier, Rachel L Bykowski, Tomasz Stevenson, Brian eng 5T32-AI49795/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ R01-AI53101/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Germany 2006/03/15 Int J Med Microbiol. 2006 May; 296 Suppl 40:92-102. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmm.2005.12.011. Epub 2006 Mar 10"