Antibiotic resistance genes develop in bacterial communities quickly after the introduction of an antibiotic. New methods of microscopic warfare must be developed to have effective treatments for infections, and one such method is targeting quorum sensing. Quorum sensing is the phenomenon in which bacterial species produce a chemical (autoinducer) and those bacteria measure the concentration of this chemical to execute actions as a collective, such as becoming virulent. The enzyme that catalyzes the creation of autoinducer is produced by the I gene. Autoinducers are specific to the transcriptional regulators they bind. The class of autoinducer examined was acylated homoserine lactone (AHL). The R gene creates a transcriptional regulator, and autoinducer binding to the transcriptional regulator enables transcription of genes downstream of R gene. To study this phenomenon, samples were taken at various points in the wastewater treatment process in wastewater treatment facilities. The DNA was extracted and sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq platform. A database of 47,198 DNA segments was made. Known quorum sensing genes were matched against the sample database to identify potentially novel I genes. Known genes were luxI and lasI. The resulting sequences were matched against the NCBI nr database using blastp to determine the novelty of the gene. Sequences with a percent identity lower than 80 were thought to be novel. If a sequence had a potentially novel I gene, its conjugate R gene was also examined using blastp. Three DNA segments had potentially novel genes, and they included three I genes and four R genes. Promoter sequences were identified on the three DNA segments. Future work on quorum sensing will facilitate better cataloging of novel genes.

Cataloging novel quorum sensing genes

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