Quorum Sensing

(sharon) #1
2 mL PBS, spin for 10 min at 17,000gon a tabletop
centrifuge to remove any bacterial debris. The phage obtained
after double PEG-NaCl precipitation can be stored at 4C for
immediate use or as a glycerol stock (15% (wt/vol) glycerol) at
 80 C for long-term storage.


  1. To determine the titer of PEG-NaCl precipitated rescued
    phage, precipitated phage is titrated by performing tenfold
    serial dilutions of phage stock in PBS and infecting 900μLof
    log-phase TG1 cells with 100μL of each dilution.

  2. After incubation at 37C for 30 min, 100μL of infected cells
    are plated onto TYE plates supplemented with 100μg/mL
    ampicillin and 1% (wt/vol) glucose, and incubated at 30C
    overnight.

  3. Determine the phage titer by counting the number of plaques
    present on the agar plates.

  4. Panning rescued phage against AHL-conjugates is aimed at
    selecting phages that bound to the conjugate of interest (i.e.,
    AHL-BSA or AHL-TG conjugates). The panning strategy is
    designed to drive the selection towards enrichment of cross-
    reactive clones as shown schematically in Fig.2. Coat Nunc
    Maxisorp Immuno tubes (Thermo Fisher Scientific) by adding
    200 μg of HSL-conjugate dissolved in 4 mL of PBS and
    incubating overnight at 4C. The immunotube is then washed
    three times with PBS, blocked with MPBS for 2 h at 37оC, and
    further washed three times with PBS.

  5. To select for specific binding, 1 mL of rescued phage mixed
    with 3 mL of MPBS is added to the immunotube and incu-
    bated for 30 min at room temperature on a rolling tumbler.

  6. The tube is then allowed to stand for 90 min at room tempera-
    ture. Following incubation, the unbound phage is discarded by
    washing the tube ten times with PBS containing 0.1% (vol/vol)
    Tween 20, and then ten times with PBS.

  7. For triethylamine elution of AHL-binding phages, following
    an initial PBS wash, the bound phage is eluted from the immu-
    notube by adding 1 mL of 100 mM triethylamine and rotating
    for exactly 10 min at room temperature. Triethylamine is alka-
    line and increasing the pH of the immunotube causes phage
    release. The solution is then transferred to another tube and
    neutralized by adding 500μL of 1 M Tris–HCl (pH 7.4).
    Eluted phage can be stored at 4C or as glycerol stock at
     80 оC by adding 15% (vol/vol) glycerol.

  8. Free antigen elution of AHL-binding phages. This additional
    elution strategy is included from the second and subsequent
    rounds of selection to increase the chance of recovering “free
    AHL” (non-conjugated) binding phage. After phage binding


344 Soumya Palliyil

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