Interspecies and Interkingdom Signaling via Quorum Signals

Quorum sensing (QS) is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism of cell‐to‐cell communication utilized by hundreds of different species of microbes. QS is mediated by small molecules and their corresponding receptors, many of which are similar in structure and function. Consequently, microbes have deve...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Israel journal of chemistry 2016-05, Vol.56 (5), p.265-272
Main Authors: Clinton, Allie, Rumbaugh, Kendra P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
autoinducers
Bacteria
cell-to-cell communication
Detection
enzymes
Microorganisms
Molecular structure
proteins
Receptors
Virulence
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Quorum sensing (QS) is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism of cell‐to‐cell communication utilized by hundreds of different species of microbes. QS is mediated by small molecules and their corresponding receptors, many of which are similar in structure and function. Consequently, microbes have developed ways to detect signals produced by their prokaryotic and eukaryotic neighbors and alter their behavior accordingly. These interactions have been termed interspecies and interkingdom signaling, respectively. In most described cases, bacteria use this sensory information to either up‐regulate their own virulence or down‐regulate the virulence of their neighbor. In this review, we describe many of the known interspecies and interkingdom signaling events that are mediated by quorum signals, and discuss the impact these may have on the ability of microbes to interact with each other and with their hosts.
ISSN:0021-2148
1869-5868
DOI:10.1002/ijch.201400132