quorum-sensing

Engineered bacterial communities can use chemical communication to coordinate a metabolic division of labour that no single strain performs as effectively alone.

Bacterial collectives combine signalling, division of labour, environmental memory and local decision rules to achieve capabilities unavailable to individual cells.

Extremophile microbes use quorum sensing to coordinate population-level behaviour even under conditions of extreme heat, cold, salinity or acidity. A new review maps signalling across thermophiles, psychrophiles, halophiles and acidophiles, showing that these organisms produce and detect autoinducer molecules whose accumulating concentration provides local information about population density.

Gut bacteria coordinate through multiple overlapping communication channels rather than relying on a single signalling mechanism. A new review describes three major pathways: quorum sensing changes gene expression as bacterial population density changes; extracellular vesicles transport proteins, nucleic acids and signalling molecules between cells; and horizontal gene transfer distributes genetic capabilities through microbial communities.

Social insects provide concrete examples of collectives enforcing system-level constraints through local behaviour even when no individual can measure the state of the whole group.

Part 4: The dangling conversation In the previous article, we saw bacterial populations defend themselves collectively. Cyanobacteria formed protective flocs, while dying E.

To Which Quorum Should a Bacterium Listen? In the first article on microbial communication, we saw how bacteria release chemical signals that accumulate as a population grows.

This is a part one of a four part series of emergent microbial communication. “Quorum sensing”, “quorum quenching”. Cool words, what are we talking about here?