A continuation of the section Bacteria that can count -- and talk -- on quorum sensing and related topics
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Some web sites and references for more information...
Talking Bacteria, and How to Shut Them Up, by Ker Than, March 10, 2005. http://www.livescience.com/animals/050310_talking_bacteria.html.
Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bacteria, by Dr Bonnie Bassler, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at Princeton. http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/bassler.html.
Biofilms. The cholera bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, forms a biofilm in the infected person's intestine. Quorum sensing is involved both in the formation of the biofilm and in the liberation of individual cells that can go on and actually cause disease. Cholera Bacteria Break from Biofilm to Cause Disease, a news story in Focus, from the Harvard Medical School, November 21, 2003. http://focus.hms.harvard.edu/2003/Nov21_2003/microbiology.html.
Biofilms. A general overview. K Sauer et al, Biofilms and Biocomplexity. Microbe 2:347, 7/07. Microbe, the news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology, is free online; this item is at http://www.asm.org/microbe/index.asp?bid=51543 (HTML) or http://www.asm.org/ASM/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000003181/znw00707000347.pdf (PDF).
And beyond. If you post messages in public places, others may read them. Eukaryotes may read bacterial signals -- and may even try to disrupt them, as first shown in 1995. How they do it might give us ideas for new antibiotics -- that work by disrupting bacterial quorum sensing. W D Bauer et al, Eukaryotes Deal with Bacterial Quorum Sensing. ASM News 71:129, 3/05. The news magazine ASM News -- now called Microbe -- is free online; this item is at http://www.asm.org/microbe/index.asp?bid=33388 (HTML) or http://www.asm.org/ASM/files/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/000000001442/znw00305000129.pdf (PDF). This article is also listed in the answer key to an organic/biochem practice quiz. Quiz: Alkenes and alkynes. Answer key.
If quorum sensing (QS) is part of the pathogenic process, then disrupting QS may be useful in treating infections. K D Janda's group has developed an antibody to a QS signaling molecule. A vaccine based on this antibody protects mice from Staph infections. A press release from Scripps, October 30, 2007: Scripps Research Team Blocks Bacterial Communication System to Prevent Deadly Staph Infections: http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/103007.html. The paper behind this press release is J Park et al, Infection Control by Antibody Disruption of Bacterial Quorum Sensing Signaling. Chemistry & Biology 14:1119-1127, 10/07.
Probiotics are bacteria that may be good for you; some may interfere with pathogens. A recent paper showed that Lactobacillus acidophilus somehow interferes with the quorum sensing mechanisms of the serious Escherichia coli pathogenic strain O157:H7. The work so far is in vitro, and awaits testing in animals. For a news story, see Probiotic Bacteria May Disrupt Quorum Sensing of Pathogens. Microbe 2:376, 8/07. Microbe, the news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology, is free online; this item is at http://www.asm.org/microbe/index.asp?bid=52090. The paper behind this news story is M J Medellin-Pena et al, Probiotics Affect Virulence-Related Gene Expression in Escherichia coli O157:H7. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73:4259-4267, 7/07. http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/13/4259.
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Last update: March 26, 2009