Quorum sensing and iron regulate a two-for-one siderophore gene cluster in . Author Darcy McRose, Oliver Baars, Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, François Morel Publication Year 2018 Type Journal Article Abstract The secretion of small Fe-binding molecules called siderophores is an important microbial strategy for survival in Fe-limited environments. Siderophore production is often regulated by quorum sensing (QS), a microbial counting technique that allows organisms to alter gene expression based on cell density. However, the identity and quantities of siderophores produced under QS regulation are rarely studied in the context of their roles in Fe uptake. We investigated the link between QS, siderophores, and Fe uptake in the model marine organism where QS is thought to repress siderophore production. We find that uses a single QS- and Fe-repressed gene cluster to produce both cell-associated siderophores (amphiphilic enterobactins) as well as several related soluble siderophores, which we identify and quantify using liquid chromatography-coupled (LC)-MS as well as tandem high-resolution MS (LC-HR-MS/MS). Measurements of siderophore production show that soluble siderophores are present at ∼100× higher concentrations than amphi-enterobactin and that over the course of growth decreases amphi-enterobactin concentrations but accumulates soluble siderophores. Fe radio-tracer uptake experiments demonstrate that these soluble siderophores play a significant role in Fe uptake and that the QS-dictated concentrations of soluble siderophores in stationary phase are near the limit of cellular uptake capacities. We propose that cell-associated and soluble siderophores are beneficial to in different environmental and growth contexts and that QS allows to exploit "knowledge" of its population size to avoid unnecessary siderophore production. Keywords Quorum Sensing, Vibrio, Multigene Family, Iron, Siderophores, Enterobactin Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Volume 115 Issue 29 Pages 7581-7586 Date Published 2018 Jul 17 ISSN Number 1091-6490 DOI 10.1073/pnas.1805791115 Alternate Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A PMCID PMC6055174 PMID 29954861 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML