E-Poster Presentation Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2021

Caffeic acid as a potential quorum sensing inhibitor in Aliivibrio fischeri ATCC 7744 (#320)

Eric Kat Jun Low 1 , Crystale Lim 1 , Wai Sum Yap 1
  1. UCSI University, Cheras, WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

Caffeic acid 1,1-dimethylallyl ester is a major compound of manuka propolis, it has shown a significant quorum sensing inhibition effect against the Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472 without suppressive effect on the bacterial growth. Reduction of violacein (purple pigment) production was detected, downregulated the VioA, VioD and VioE genes that involved in the biosynthesis pathway of violacein and showed a high binding affinity toward the FAD-binding pockets of VioA and VioD proteins. However, the molecular target of caffeic acid 1,1-dimethylallyl ester on the Lux quorum sensing system of Gram-negative bacteria, Aliivibrio fischeri ATCC 7744 bioluminescence pathway is not identified yet. Therefore, molecular docking is used to investigate the potential molecular target of caffeic acid 1,1-dimethylallyl ester on the seven Lux genes (LuxCDABE and LuxR-LuxI) of Aliivibrio fischeri ATCC 7744’s bioluminescence pathway. The 3D protein structure of Lux proteins was generated via homology modelling using I-TASSER and molecular docking was performed using SwissDock. Caffeic acid 1,1-dimethylallyl ester shown the highest binding affinity at -7.714 kcal/mol toward the α-subunit of luciferase encoded by LuxA gene that catalyzed the bioluminescence reaction of Aliivibrio fischeri ATCC 7744 using flavin mononucleotide and oxygen as substrate. Meanwhile, the quorum sensing inhibition mechanism of caffeic acid 1,1 -dimethylallyl ester on the α-subunit of luciferase was deduced to be non-competitive due to different binding site as compared to its natural substrate of flavin mononucleotide (FMN), this might induce structural changes on the α-subunit of luciferase to prevent the binding of its natural substract. In conclusion, the in-silico screening method via molecular docking indicate that caffeic acid 1,1-dimethylallyl ester is a potential Lux gene quorum sensing inhibitor that inhibit the quorum sensing controlled bioluminescence pathway of Aliivibrio fischeri ATCC 7744 by non-competitive mechanism to prevent the binding of its natural substrate (FMN) while this provide the basic understanding on the quorum sensing effect of caffeic acid 1,1-dimethylallyl ester for further gene expression study using real-time PCR.

  1. Gemiarto, A., Ninyio, N., Lee, S., Logis, J., Fatima, A., Chan, E. and Lim, C., 2015. Isoprenyl caffeate, a major compound in manuka propolis, is a quorum-sensing inhibitor in Chromobacterium violaceum. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, 108(2), pp.491-504.