, 2004). However, the Prevotella species that did not produce indole seemed to lack the tnaA gene altogether. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using 16S rRNA gene sequences of the Prevotella species (Fig. 4). Interestingly, the indole-producing (and tnaA-containing) Prevotella species, with the exception of P. micans,

formed a cluster that was separate from the remaining non-indole-producing Prevotella species and P. micans (Fig. 4). Presumably, the tnaA gene in P. micans JCM 16134T might have been transferred from other tnaA-containing oral bacteria such as P. intermedia and P. gingivalis. Further studies are necessary to determine whether GKT137831 indole production is observed in the other strains of P. micans. Several lines of new evidence suggest that indole acts as an intercellular signaling molecule (for a review, see Lee & Lee, 2010). A variety of both gram-positive and -negative bacteria produce large quantities of indole, whereas several studies, including the current study, have revealed the existence of both indole-producing and non-indole-producing species in the genus Prevotella. Indole has been shown to function as a signaling molecule for microorganisms that lack the capacity to produce indole (Kamath & Vaidyanathan, 1990; Nikaido et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2009), suggesting that the non-indole-producing Prevotella species might

Doxorubicin cell line exploit signals generated by the local bacterial consortium, as seen in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Diggle et al., 2007). Alternatively, non-indole-producing Prevotella species might not need indole to survive. Further research is needed to elucidate the effects of indole on the physiology and virulence of Prevotella species. This study was supported in eltoprazine part by Iwadare Scholarship (T.S.-I.) and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (number 20592463) and for Strategic Medical Research Center from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. This work is dedicated to people in the Iwate prefecture who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Nucleotide sequence accession number AB618289. Table S1. Oligonucleotide primers used in this study.

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“Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and results in innumerable deaths across the world. The emergence of multidrug-resistant and extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis strains and its coinfection with HIV has made tuberculosis more difficult to treat. Therefore, new antimycobacterial agent(s) for both therapy and disinfection are urgently required. In this context the present study describes the antibacterial property of long-chain fatty alcohols against mycobacteria.