ABSTRACTBacterial rapid surfing motility is a novel surface adaptation ofPseudomonas aeruginosain the presence of the glycoprotein mucin. Here, we show that other Gram-negative motile bacterial species, includingEscherichia coli,Salmonella enterica,Vibrio harveyi,Enterobacter cloacae, andProteus mirabilis, also exhibit the physical characteristics of surfing on the surface of agar plates containing 0.4% mucin, where surfing motility was generally more rapid and less dependent on medium viscosity than was swimming motility. As previously observed inPseudomonas aeruginosa, all surfing species exhibited some level of broad-spectrum adaptive resistance, although the antibiotics to which they demonstrated surfing-mediated resistance differed. Surfing motility inP. aeruginosawas found to be dependent on the quorum-sensing systems of this organism; however, this aspect was not conserved in other tested bacterial species, includingV. harveyiandS. enterica, as demonstrated by assaying specific quorum-sensing mutants. Thus, rapid surfing motility is a complex surface growth adaptation that is conserved in several motile bacteria, involves flagella, and leads to diverse broad-spectrum antibiotic resistance, but it is distinct in terms of dependence on quorum sensing.IMPORTANCEThis study showed for the first time that surfing motility, a novel form of surface motility first discovered inPseudomonas aeruginosaunder artificial cystic fibrosis conditions, including the presence of high mucin content, is conserved in other motile bacterial species known to be mucosa-associated, includingEscherichia coli,Salmonella enterica, andProteus mirabilis. Here, we demonstrated that key characteristics of surfing, including the ability to adapt to various viscous environments and multidrug adaptive resistance, are also conserved. Using mutagenesis assays, we also identified the importance of all three known quorum-sensing systems, Las, Rhl, and Pqs, inP. aeruginosain regulating surfing motility, and we also observed a conserved dependence of surfing on flagella in certain species.
Engineered Orthogonal Quorum Sensing Systems for Synthetic Gene Regulation in Escherichia coli
