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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

JUICY TAX REVENUES FROM BIG TOBACCO. "Tobacco has been taxed by state governments in the United States for decades. The cumulative revenue of US tobacco taxation exceeded $32 billion in 2010, creating a major source of income for government." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_politics 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

THE ECONOMIC BURDEN TRUMPS ALL. "The costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses and the resulting loss of productivity are leading economic arguments for tobacco control policies." https://lnkd.in/dKtA3ku 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

AVOIDING BACTERIAL RESISTANCE. "The quorum quenching therapeutic approach promises a lower risk of resistance development, since interference with virulence generally does not affect the growth and fitness of the bacteria and, hence, does not exert an associated selection pressure for drug-resistant strains." https://lnkd.in/dPSTiju 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

PROMISING APPROACH. "Why does quenching microbial quorum sensing hold promises in infection control? This novel strategy results from the realization that many single-celled microbial organisms, including bacterial and fungal pathogens, can communicate with each other and act collectively in the regulation of infection-related traits, including expression of virulence genes and production of biofilms." https://lnkd.in/dp7sxG6 View in LinkedIn

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

POTENTIAL ANTIBIOTIC ALTERNATIVE. "With the ongoing emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, there is a current need for development of alternative therapeutic strategies. Overall, the evidence suggests that QSI therapy may be efficacious against some, but not necessarily all, bacterial pathogens." https://lnkd.in/d8iYCZj View in LinkedIn