Detection and quantification of N-acyl-L-homoserine lactones from Vibrio Harveyi culture.
by Wood, Molly R.; Vasicek, Thaddeus; Alkhatib, Kamel; Diaz-Perez, Alda; Pysz, Patrick; Stenken, Julie A.
N-acyl-L-homoserine lactones (AHLs) are produced by Gram-neg. bacteria and are part of an elaborate chem. communication system called quorum sensing. These important mols. help bacteria det. localized d. and drive various phenotypic changes. For this reason, there is tremendous interest in quantifying AHLs. In this work, an anal. method using gas chromatog.- flame ionization detection (GC-FID) was created to quantify the (AHLs). The AHLs that were detected and quantified are N-butryl-homoserine lactone (AHL 4), N-hexanoyl-homoserine lactone (AHL 6), and N-octanoyl-homoserine lactone (AHL 8). They each had reproducible retention times of 9.2 min, 11.1 min, and 12.7 min, resp. Extns. were made from samples in org. soln. and in marine broth to confirm that the method constructed could quantify AHL 4,6, and 8 for stds. and complex samples. The GC-FID method was applied when analyzing Vibrio Harveyi culture and the expected AHL 8 was detected in the culture sample. In conclusion, the results reported suggest that using a GC-FID method is proficient for sepg., detecting, and quantifying various acyl-homoserine lactones.