Members of the former family cleave
the molecule into a free homoserine lactone and a fatty acid, while
members of the latter family hydrolyze the lactone ring, yielding a homoserine. Degradation products of both enzymes are no longer
active, thus shutting down the QS circuitry (Amara et al., 2011;
Czajkowski and Jafra, 2009). Finally, AHL oxidoreductase, a third type
of AHL inactivating enzyme, has also been described (Uroz et al.,
2005).