Streptococcus mutans is a primary etiological agent of dental caries. Farnesol, as a potential antimicrobial agent, inhibits the development ofS. mutans biofilm. In this study, we hypothesized that farnesol inhibits caries development in vitro and interferes with biofilm formation by regulating virulence-associated gene expression. The inhibitory effects of farnesol to S. mutans biofilms on ena...

Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of human gastrointestinal disease and small ruminant abortions in the United States. The recent emergence of a highly virulent, tetracycline-resistant C. jejuni subsp. jejuni sheep abortion clone (clone SA) in the United States, and that strain's association with human disease, has resulted in a heightened awareness of the zoonotic potential of this organ...

The regulatory network for the uptake of Escherichia coli autoinducer 2 (AI-2) is comprised of a transporter complex, LsrABCD; its repressor, LsrR; and a cognate signal kinase, LsrK. This network is an integral part of the AI-2 quorum-sensing (QS) system. Because LsrR and LsrK directly regulate AI-2 uptake, we hypothesized that they might play a wider role in regulating other QS-related cellula...

Bacterial autoinducer 2 (AI-2) is proposed to be an interspecies mediator of cell-cell communication that enables cells to operate at the multicellular level. Many environmental stimuli have been shown to affect the extracellular AI-2 levels, carbon sources being among the most important. In this report, we show that both AI-2 synthesis and uptake in Escherichia coli are subject to catabolite r...