What a fantastic phrase.
According to Wikipedia:
Bacteria that use quorum sensing constitutively produce and secrete certain signaling molecules (called autoinducers or pheromones). These bacteria also have a receptor that can specifically detect the signaling molecule (inducer). When the inducer binds the receptor, it activates transcription of certain genes, including those for inducer synthesis. There is a low likelihood of a bacterium detecting its own secreted inducer. Thus, in order for gene transcription to be activated, the cell must encounter signaling molecules secreted by other cells in its environment. When only a few other bacteria of the same kind are in the vicinity, diffusion reduces the concentration of the inducer in the surrounding medium to almost zero, so the bacteria produce little inducer. However, as the population grows, the concentration of the inducer passes a threshold, causing more inducer to be synthesized. This forms a positive feedback loop, and the receptor becomes fully activated. Activation of the receptor induces the up-regulation of other specific genes, causing all of the cells to begin transcription at approximately the same time. This coordinated behavior of bacterial cells can be useful in a variety of situations. For instance, the bioluminescent luciferase produced by Vibrio fischeri would not be visible if it were produced by a single cell. By using quorum sensing to limit the production of luciferase to situations when cell populations are large, V. fischeri cells are able to avoid wasting energy on the production of useless product.
They're studying ways to disrupt quorum sensing in order to fight drug-resistant bacteria.
Taking this a step further, the research community could use the information about the intercellular network to identify the best approaches to quorum-sensing inhibition, which disrupts bacterial communication even if it does not actually kill the bacteria. "Once we have modeled their communications network, we can look at how bacteria behave under attack, how they communicate and how this communication breaks down," Marculescu says. "Longer-term, with detailed [information] about a patient's condition, our framework can intelligently generate personalized treatment plans that have the best predicted efficacy without inducing drug resistance."
I cringed a little reading this because the scientists use Twitter analogies to explain how bacteria communicate. I'm old now and i mistrust Twitter on an instinctual level. Also, when they talked about disrupting those avenues of communication in order to defeat the bacteria from organizing, i sort of imagined it in terms of the government using techniques to thwart activism. But "quorum sensing" is still pretty awesome.
By min | August 31, 2015, 9:30 AM | Good Words
& Science | Link
