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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Anti-virulent Disruption of Pathogenic Biofilms using Engineered Quorum-quenching Lactonases
Published on: January 1, 2016
Microbial quorum quenching mitigates biofouling from polyvinyl chloride pipes in industrial circulating water systems
Baoyong Zhang1, Guanglei Qian2, Chenxin Xie2
1Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, PR China.
Abstract:
To destabilize biofouling resulting from extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in industrial circulating water systems, this study introduces a quorum sensing (QS)-based inhibition strategy using methyl anthranilate (MA) to disrupt biofouling structure. Strategical application of a low dose of MA at 1 mM reduced EPS content by 48.0 ± 5.2% and decreased biofouling thickness by 25.7 ± 5.0% (from 68.6 ± 2.8 to 51.0 ± 4.0 μm) compared to the control group. Further analysis indicated that MA altered secondary structure of EPS proteins, resulting in hydrogen bonds breakage and structural unfolding, thereby compromising biofouling stability and integrity. Metagenomic profiling revealed a significant downregulation of EPS-biosynthesis pathways (amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism) and QS-and EPS-related genes (trpE and nagB) following MA exposure. Microbial diversity analysis showed a substantial reduction in the abundance of key genera (e.g., Candidatus Kuenenia, Mycobacterium, Ideonella) harboring EPS- and QS-associated genes in response to MA treatment. Moreover, co-occurrence network analysis demonstrated that MA exposure triggered the loss of keystone taxa, leading to systematic destabilization of the biofouling layer. These findings underscore the potential and utility of MA-based QS inhibition as an effective and targeted approach for biofouling control in circulating water pipelines, which could inform important clues for anti-biofouling development in engineered water systems.
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