Quorum Sensing Modulates Bacterial Virulence and Colonization Dynamics During an Enteric Infection

This study aims to understand the role of Quorum Sensing (QS) during pathogen infection. To do so, we studied the gastrointestinal pathogen Citrobacter rodentium, a murine pathogen used as a model for human infections caused by enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EPEC and EHEC). The use of this bacterial model enabled us to characterize the role of the CroIR QS system used by this bacterium to perform N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) based communication. This dataset contains high throughput RNA-sequencing data of an AHL-synthase deletion mutant (croI) strain and of wild-type C. rodentium DBS100. By comparing these datasets, we discovered that quorum sensing plays an essential role regulating pathogen virulence by allowing this bacterial pathogen to optimize the timing of expression of virulence genes according to its surrounding environment.