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Autoinducer-2-mediated communication network within human gut microbiota.
Qingying Fan1, Hengxi Sun2, Xueyuan Lin1
1State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.
The ISME Journal
|October 7, 2025
Summary
Human gut microbes use quorum sensing (QS) for communication, with autoinducer-2 (AI-2) being the most common signal. This study reveals AI-2
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Microbial Ecology
- Systems Biology
Background:
- Quorum sensing (QS) is a critical bacterial communication process.
- QS regulates intestinal microecology, host nutrition, and metabolism.
- Understanding QS in the human gut microbiome is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the prevalence and diversity of QS systems in the human gut microbiota.
- To identify the main QS signals and their associated genes in gut microbes.
- To explore the functional roles and communication modes mediated by QS signals.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 289,232 prokaryotic genomes from the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome collection.
- Identification and characterization of QS signal synthase and receptor genes.
- Metatranscriptomic analysis to assess gene expression in the human gut.
- Communication network analysis.
Main Results:
- Autoinducer-2 (AI-2) is the most prevalent QS signal, with the luxS synthase gene found in 2039 species.
- 299 species possess genes for AI-2 receptors (LuxP-, LsrB-, dCache_1-, GAPES1-types).
- AI-2 receptors exhibit diverse functionalities, including roles in chemotaxis and signaling.
- AI-2 mediated interactions are widespread across major gut phyla (Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota, etc.).
Conclusions:
- AI-2 is a dominant QS signal in the human gut microbiota.
- Diverse AI-2 mediated interspecies communication pathways exist.
- QS gene expression occurs in the human gut under various health states.
- Findings provide insights for engineering gut microbiota and synthetic consortia.
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