Development of competence in <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i>: pheromone autoinduction and control of quorum sensing by the oligopeptide permease

Abstract excerpt

Competence for genetic transformation in the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae is a transient physiological property. A competence-stimulating peptide, CSP, was recently identified as the processed product of the comC gene. As conflicting results have been reported regarding CSP autoinduction, we monitored the CSP-induced expression of comCDE in derivatives of strain R6 using comC::lacZ fusions....