Bacterial quorum sensing (QS) system regulates the production of most costly but sharable extracellular products (public goods) in a growth-phase-dependent manner, and the development of this energy-intensive process is susceptible to environmental changes. However, the role of nutrient factors in dominating the QS-mediated cooperative interaction and intracellular metabolism still remains less understood. Here we studied the performance of QS system by growing Pseudomonas aeruginosa under different nutrient and culture conditions. The results of comparative-transcriptomic analyses revealed that carbon source-limitation was the main factor suppressing the activation of QS system, and a substantial number of public-good-encoding genes were induced when phosphorus is limiting in short-term culture. By contrast, although the QS regulation of P. aeruginosa in all the cultures was generally decreased along with the enrichment of QS-deficient individuals during evolution, limitation of different nutrient factors had discrepant effects in directing the formation of population structure by coordinating the production of public goods and primary metabolism, especially the starch and sucrose metabolism. These findings demonstrate the pleiotropy of QS regulation in balancing the development of cooperative behavior and metabolism, and provide a reference for further understanding the role of QS system in causing persistent infections.

中文翻译：

---

种群进化过程中细菌群体​​感应系统的营养因子依赖性性能

细菌群体感应 (QS) 系统以依赖于生长阶段的方式调节最昂贵但可共享的细胞外产品（公共产品）的生产，并且这种能源密集型过程的发展易受环境变化的影响。然而，营养因子在主导 QS 介导的协同相互作用和细胞内代谢中的作用仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们通过在不同的营养和培养条件下种植铜绿假单胞菌来研究 QS 系统的性能。比较转录组学分析结果表明，碳源限制是抑制QS系统激活的主要因素，并且在短期培养中磷限制时诱导了大量公共物品编码基因。相比之下，虽然 QS 对 P. 在进化过程中，随着 QS 缺陷个体的富集，所有培养物中的铜绿假单胞菌普遍减少，不同营养因子的限制在通过协调公共物品的生产和初级代谢，特别是淀粉和蔗糖代谢。这些发现证明了QS调控在平衡合作行为和代谢发展方面的多效性，为进一步理解QS系统在引起持续感染中的作用提供了参考。不同营养因子的限制通过协调公共产品的生产和初级代谢，特别是淀粉和蔗糖代谢，在指导种群结构形成方面具有不同的作用。这些发现证明了QS调控在平衡合作行为和代谢发展方面的多效性，为进一步理解QS系统在引起持续感染中的作用提供了参考。不同营养因子的限制通过协调公共产品的生产和初级代谢，特别是淀粉和蔗糖代谢，在指导种群结构形成方面具有不同的作用。这些发现证明了QS调控在平衡合作行为和代谢发展方面的多效性，为进一步理解QS系统在引起持续感染中的作用提供了参考。