| Institution: | (1) University of Guam Marine Laboratory, UOG Station, Mangilao, GUAM 96923, USA;(2) Centre for Marine Biofouling and Bio-Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052 Australia;(3) Department of Microbial Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Althanstr. 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria |
| Abstract: | A challenge for understanding the role of bacterial cell–cell signalling in the environment is the detection of those signals,
which are often present in low (nmol L−1) concentrations. We describe here a simple purification method, solid-phase extraction (SPE), for increasing the sensitivity
of detection for one such group of signals, acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs), in environmental samples. Spiking of dried marine
sponge tissue (Stylinos sp.) with AHLs resulted in detection down to 0.01 ppm for 3-oxo-hexanoyl homoserine lactone (3-oxo C6-HSL) and 1 ppm for hexanoyl homoserine lactone (C6-HSL). Compared with liquid extraction methods use of SPE resulted in twofold and tenfold improvements in sensitivity, respectively. |
