Interference with AI-2-mediated bacterial cell-cell communication.

Publication Year
2005

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

Bacteria communicate by means of chemical signal molecules called autoinducers. This process, called quorum sensing, allows bacteria to count the members in the community and to alter gene expression synchronously across the population. Quorum-sensing-controlled processes are often crucial for successful bacterial--host relationships--both symbiotic and pathogenic. Most quorum-sensing autoinducers promote intraspecies communication, but one autoinducer, called AI-2, is produced and detected by a wide variety of bacteria and is proposed to allow interspecies communication. Here we show that some species of bacteria can manipulate AI-2 signalling and interfere with other species' ability to assess and respond correctly to changes in cell population density. AI-2 signalling, and the interference with it, could have important ramifications for eukaryotes in the maintenance of normal microflora and in protection from pathogenic bacteria.

Journal
Nature
Volume
437
Issue
7059
Pages
750-3
Date Published
2005 Sep 29
ISSN Number
1476-4687
Alternate Journal
Nature
PMCID
PMC1388276
PMID
16193054