Month: September 2022

SERIOUS CROSSTALK. “Bacteria use quorum sensing to coordinate certain behaviors such as biofilm formation, virulence, and antibiotic resistance, based on the local density of the bacterial population. Quorum sensing can occur within a single bacterial species as well as between diverse species.” http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing View in LinkedIn

FUNCTIONAL TRIGGERS. “Aliivibrio fischeri, a bioluminescent bacterium … lives as a mutualistic symbiont in the photophore (or light-producing organ) of the Hawaiian bobtail squid. When A. fischeri cells are free-living (or planktonic), the autoinducer is at low concentration, and, thus, cells do not luminesce. However, when they are highly concentrated in the photophore (about 10(11) cells/ml), transcription of luciferase is induced, leading to bioluminescence.” http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR SIGNALS. “Quorum sensing depends on the synthesis of small molecules (… pheromones or autoinducers) that diffuse in and out of bacterial cells. As the bacterial population density increases, so does the synthesis of quorum sensing signal molecules ... Once a critical threshold concentration has been reached, a target sensor kinase or response regulator is activated (or repressed) so facilitating the expression of quorum sensing-dependent genes.” http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/362/1483/1119 View in LinkedIn

COLLECTIVE ACTION. “Quorum sensing enables a bacterial population to mount a co-operative response that improves access to nutrients or specific environmental niches, promotes collective defense against other competitor prokaryotes or eukaryotic defense mechanisms and facilitates survival through differentiation into morphological forms better able to combat environmental threats.” http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/362/1483/1119 View in LinkedIn

CROSS-SPECIES LANGUAGE. “Quorum sensing also crosses the prokaryotic–eukaryotic boundary since quorum sensing-dependent signalling can be exploited or inactivated by both plants and mammals.” http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/362/1483/1119 View in LinkedIn

QUORUM SENSING ACROSS SPECIES. “Eukaryotes and prokaryotes have evolved diverse signalling mechanisms to detect and respond to each other. Although bacterial QS signal molecules have largely been considered as effectors of prokaryotic gene expression, they are bioactive molecules which can modify the behaviour of fungal, plant and animal cells.” https://lnkd.in/dB3MYFP View in LinkedIn

QUORUM SIGNALING ACROSS KINGDOMS. "QS also crosses the prokaryotic–eukaryotic boundary in that QS signal molecules influence the behaviour of eukaryotic organisms in both the plant and mammalian worlds such that QS signal molecules may directly facilitate bacterial survival by promoting an advantageous lifestyle within a given environmental niche.” http://mic.sgmjournals.org/content/153/12/3923.full View in LinkedIn

COMMON GOOD ACTIONS. "Bacterial cooperation may take the form of the excretion of “public goods”: exoproducts such as virulence factors, exoenzymes or components of the matrix in biofilms, to yield significant benefit for individuals joining in the common effort of producing them." https://lnkd.in/dT8bNGS View in LinkedIn

GAMING THE COMMON GOOD. "The cooperative population is exposed to exploitation by cheaters, i.e., mutants who contribute less or nil to the effort but fully enjoy the benefits of cooperation. The communication system is also vulnerable to a different type of cheaters (“Liars”) who may produce the QS signal but not the exoproduct, thus ruining the reliability of the signal. https://lnkd.in/dT8bNGS View in LinkedIn

SIGNAL ATTRITION. "The term quorum sensing does not, however, adequately describe all situations where bacteria employ diffusible chemical signals. The size of the quorum, for example, is not fixed but will vary according to the relative rates of production and loss of signal molecule, i.e. it is dependent on the prevailing local environmental conditions." http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/362/1483/1119 View in LinkedIn