Beschreibung:
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>
<jats:p>
LuxS plays a role in the synthesis of an extracellular signaling molecule, autoinducer 2 (AI-2). To analyze a possible role of AI-2 in regulating
<jats:italic>Helicobacter pylori</jats:italic>
gene expression, we constructed a panel of transcriptional reporter strains. We show that the expression of
<jats:italic>H. pylori flaA</jats:italic>
is growth phase dependent and that
<jats:italic>flaA</jats:italic>
transcription increases in association with increased culture density. Mutating the
<jats:italic>luxS</jats:italic>
gene eliminates growth-phase-dependent control of
<jats:italic>flaA</jats:italic>
, and this growth phase dependence is restored when the
<jats:italic>luxS</jats:italic>
mutant strain is complemented with the wild-type
<jats:italic>luxS</jats:italic>
gene.
</jats:p>