Engineered biofilms have applications in biorefineries. Here, Honget al. engineer bacteria to produce a combination of dispersal proteins and quorum sensing factors, and show that one dispersing ...

Biofilms consist of diverse species of bacteria, which communicate via a signaling mechanism called quorum sensing (QS) to regulate gene expression and optimize community behaviors.

University at Buffalo scientists have discovered a promising new drug lead that works by inhibiting the sophisticated bacterial communication system called quorum sensing.

What Is Quorum Sensing? Individual bacteria use quorum sensing to detect and respond to changes in cell density as a coordinated group. For example, the first reported evidence of quorum sensing was ...

Knowing the configuration of an essential quorum-sensing protein might permit structure-based design of a drug to block the chemical signal before bacteria join in a drug-resistant biofilm.

In addition, quorum-sensing molecules at the base of biofilms are protected from fluid flow and can be detected by neighboring cells, the researchers observed. Cells that receive these quorum-sensing ...

2. Irreversible attachment: Cells reorient themselves, clusters develop, motility is lost, and the las quorum sensing regulon becomes activated. 3. Maturation I: Cell clusters become thicker than 10 ...

Traditionally, quorum sensing is thought to help microorganisms to coordinate processes that would be inefficient in single cells, such as the formation of biofilms.

For example, biofilm forming E. coli can cause urinary tract infections. Thus, disrupting quorum sensing and biofilm forming in the bacteria could prevent those infections. Quorum sensing is ...

More information: Sampriti Mukherjee et al, The RhlR quorum-sensing receptor controls Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis and biofilm development independently of its canonical homoserine lactone ...

Knowing the configuration of an essential quorum-sensing protein might permit structure-based design of a drug to block the chemical signal before bacteria join in a drug-resistant biofilm.