Time-dependent hormesis of chemical mixtures: A case study on sulfa antibiotics and a quorum-sensing inhibitor of Vibrio fischeri

• The time-dependent hormesis of SAs and B3O on bioluminescence was observed.
• The six SAs had a similar hormesis effect on bioluminescence.
• Hormesis effect of the mixture on bioluminescence varied with time.
• B3O had a larger impact on the time-dependent hormesis than SAs.

Sulfa antibiotics (SAs) and quorum-sensing inhibitor (QSI) may pose potential ecological risks because mixed using of them has been proposed to inhibit bacteria from generating antibiotic resistance. This study investigated the time-dependent hormesis of single and binary mixtures of QSI and SAs of Vibrio fischeri (V. fischeri) for 0–24 h. Although the low-dose SAs stimulated the expression of LuxR protein, the high-dose SAs could inhibit bacteria growth by competitively binding to dihydropteroate synthase. Moreover, AinR protein was bound to Benzofuran-3(2H)-one (B3O) with low concentration, thus the N-octanoyl homoserine lactone signal molecules (C8) has chance to bind to LuxR protein to promote light emission. The hormesis effect induced by the mixtures could be deduced that SAs promoted the expression of LuxR protein and B3O increases the chance of C8 binding to LuxR. Our findings facilitate new insight into the mechanistic study of hormesis and ecological risks of the chemical mixtures.