| Title: | Look who's talking: communication and quorum sensing in the bacterial world |
| Author(s): | Williams P; Winzer K; Chan WC; Camara M; |
| Address: | "Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. paul.williams@nottingham.ac.uk" |
| Journal Title: | Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0962-8436 (Print) 1471-2970 (Electronic) 0962-8436 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "For many years bacteria were considered primarily as autonomous unicellular organisms with little capacity for collective behaviour. However, we now appreciate that bacterial cells are in fact, highly communicative. The generic term 'quorum sensing' has been adopted to describe the bacterial cell-to-cell communication mechanisms which co-ordinate gene expression usually, but not always, when the population has reached a high cell density. Quorum sensing depends on the synthesis of small molecules (often referred to as 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, and consequently, their concentration in the external environment rises. 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. Quorum sensing enables a bacterial population to mount a co-operative response that improves access to nutrients or specific environmental niches, promotes collective defence against other competitor prokaryotes or eukaryotic defence mechanisms and facilitates survival through differentiation into morphological forms better able to combat environmental threats. Quorum sensing also crosses the prokaryotic-eukaryotic boundary since quorum sensing-dependent signalling can be exploited or inactivated by both plants and mammals" |
| Keywords: | 4-Butyrolactone/analogs & derivatives/physiology Gram-Negative Bacteria/*physiology Gram-Positive Bacteria/*physiology Homoserine/analogs & derivatives/physiology Lactones Quorum Sensing/*physiology Signal Transduction/physiology; |
| Notes: | "MedlineWilliams, Paul Winzer, Klaus Chan, Weng C Camara, Miguel eng G9219778/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review England 2007/03/16 Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2007 Jul 29; 362(1483):1119-34. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2007.2039" |
