Quorum sensing as a population-density-dependent determinant of bacterial physiology

被引:206
作者
Swift, S [1 ]
Downie, JA
Whitehead, NA
Barnard, AML
Salmond, GPC
Williams, P
机构
[1] Univ Nottingham, Queens Med Ctr, Inst Infect & Immun, Nottingham NG7 2RD, England
[2] Univ Nottingham, Sch Pharmaceut Sci, Nottingham NG7 2RD, England
[3] John Innes Ctr Plant Sci Res, Norwich NR4 7UH, Norfolk, England
[4] Univ Cambridge, Dept Biochem, Cambridge CB2 1QW, England
来源
ADVANCES IN MICROBIAL PHYSIOLOGY, VOL 45 | 2001年 / 45卷
基金
英国惠康基金; 英国医学研究理事会;
关键词
D O I
10.1016/S0065-2911(01)45005-3
中图分类号
Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];
学科分类号
071010 ; 081704 ;
摘要
The discovery that bacterial cells can communicate with each other has led to the realization that bacteria are capable of exhibiting much more complex patterns of co-operative behaviour than would be expected for simple unicellular microorganisms. Now generically termed 'quorum sensing', bacterial cell-to-cell communication enables a bacterial population to mount a unified response that is advantageous to its survival by improving access to complex nutrients or environmental niches, collective defence against other competitive microorganisms or eukaryotic host defence mechanisms and optimization of population survival by differentiation into morphological forms better adapted to combating environmental threats. The principle of quorum sensing encompasses the production and release of signal molecules by bacterial cells within a population. Such molecules are released into the environment and, as cell numbers increase, so does the extracellular level of signal molecule, until the bacteria sense that a threshold has been reached and gene activation, or in some cases derepression or repression, occurs via the activity of sensor-regulator systems. In this review, we will describe the biochemistry and molecular biology of a number of well-characterized N-acylhomoserine lactone quorum sensing systems to illustrate how bacteria employ cell-to-cell signalling to adjust their physiology in accordance with the prevailing high-population-density environment. Copyright © 2001 Academic Press.
引用
收藏
页码:199 / 270
页数:72
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