Identification of Synthetic Inducers and Inhibitors of the Quorum-Sensing Regulator LasR in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by High-Throughput Screening

We report the screening of 16,000 synthetic compounds for induction and inhibition of quorum sensing in a Pseudomonas putida N-acylated L-homoserine lactone (AHL) sensor strain engineered with the LasR transcriptional activator. LasR controls virulence gene expression in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and is of significant interest as a therapeutic target. Nine compounds that inhibit and 14 compounds that induce LasR activity were identified in our high-throughput screen.