The absorbance of OPA-derivatives was measured at OD340 using a U-2000 spectrophotometer (Hitachi Ltd, Tokyo, Japan).
A standard HSL with a range of 0.1 ~1 mM was used to calibrate the assay and render a linear correlation: OD340 = 0.0014 [HSL] (r 2 = 0.99). One unit of the AHL-acylase activity is defined as Selleck RXDX-101 the released nmol amount of HSL after an AHL is digested by 1 ml of cell suspension (OD600 = 1.2, cell density reaches 3 × 107 CFU ml-1) at 30°C for 1 min. Violacein quantitative assay To observe the in vivo expression of the aac gene in C. violaceum, the pS3aac was transformed to C. violaceum CV026 by the heat shock method [31] and a violacein quantitative assay [32] was performed. One ml of cultured C. violaceum CV026 (pS3aac) (OD600 = 0.7) was added into 100 ml of fresh LB broth containing tetracycline and 0.5 mM C7-HSL, and then incubated at 30°C at 250 rpm for 24 h. At intervals of 2 h, the violacein from 0.5 ml of various interval cells was extracted with 1 ml of 95% ethanol for 1 min. The supernatant containing the violacein was collected by centrifuging at 13,000 rpm for 1 min. The absorbance of the supernatant was measured at a wavelength of 576 nm (OD576) Selleck AZD5363 using a U-2000 spectrophotometer (Hitachi). Chitinase activity assay The chitinolytic
activity assay was modified from the method for detecting chitinolytic activity on agar plates [33]. Cells were seeded on LB agar containing tetracycline (10 μg·ml-1), 0.5 mM C7-HSL, and 0.2% (w/v) chitin from crab shells (Sigma). The plate was incubated at 30°C for 3 ~5 d to observe whether a clear zone formed around the colonies. The formation of a clear zone indicated a positive reaction. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of aculeacin A The assay for the determination of MIC values of aculeacin A was modified from the dilution susceptibility test [34]. A series of samples of 10 ml LB broth containing either aculeacin A or Aac-treated aculeacin A with concentrations in
the range of 0–1 μg·ml-1 was prepared and inoculated mTOR inhibitor with 100 μl of 16 h pre-cultured Candida tropicalis F-129 and incubated at 37°C for 16 h. The growth of the cells was measured at OD600. Serial dilutions of aculeacin A were incubated with 12 μg of purified Aac in 90 μlof sodium phosphate (pH 7.0) at 30°C for 1.5 h; subsequently, the dilution susceptibility test was performed. Bioinformatics The first cloned AHL-lactonase gene aiiA [35] and the AHL-acylase gene aiiD [14] were utilised as the target genes in the BLASTN and BLASTP programs [36, 37] at NCBI. Several public R. solanacearumGMI1000 genomic clones containing the aac gene were searched by the GMI1000 clone finder. http://bioinfo.genopole-toulouse.prd.fr/annotation/iANT/bacteria/ralsto/index.html. Statistics The Microsoft Excel 2003 t-test program was used. Results Identification of candidate AHL-degrading enzymes click here encoded by R. solanacearumGMI1000 BLASTN and BLASTP searches of the annotated R.