Quorum sensing

In biology, quorum sensing is the ability to detect and to respond to cell population density by gene regulation. As one example, quorum sensing (QS) enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities at which the resulting phenotypes will be most beneficial. Many species of bacteria use quorum sensing to coordinate gene expression according to the density of their local population. In similar fashion, some social insects use quorum sensing to determine where to nest. In biology, quorum sensing is the ability to detect and to respond to cell population density by gene regulation. As one example, quorum sensing (QS) enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities at which the resulting phenotypes will be most beneficial. Many species of bacteria use quorum sensing to coordinate gene expression according to the density of their local population. In similar fashion, some social insects use quorum sensing to determine where to nest. In addition to its function in biological systems, quorum sensing has several useful applications for computing and robotics. In general, quorum sensing can function as a decision-making process in any decentralized system in which the components have: (a) a means of assessing the number of other components they interact with and (b) a standard response once a threshold number of components is detected. Quorum sensing was first reported in 1970, by Kenneth Nealson, Terry Platt, and J. Woodland Hastings, who observed what they described as a conditioning of the medium in which they had grown the photoluminescent marine bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri. These bacteria did not synthesize luciferase—and therefore did not luminesce—in freshly inoculated culture but only after the bacterial population had increased significantly. Because they attributed this conditioning of the medium to the growing population of cells itself, they referred to the phenomenon as autoinduction. Some of the best-known examples of quorum sensing come from studies of bacteria. Bacteria use quorum sensing to regulate certain phenotype expressions, which in turn, coordinate their behaviours. Some common phenotypes include biofilm formation, virulence factor expression, and motility. Certain bacteria are able to use quorum sensing to regulate bioluminescence, nitrogen fixation and sporulation. Quorum sensing functions based on the local density of the bacterial population in the immediate environment. It can occur within a single bacterial species, as well as between diverse species. Both Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria use quorum sensing, but there are some major differences in their mechanisms. For the bacteria to use quorum sensing constitutively, they must possess three characteristics: to secrete a signaling molecule, an autoinducer, to detect the change in concentration of signaling molecules, and to regulate gene transcription as a response. This process is highly dependent on the diffusion mechanism of the signaling molecules. QS Signaling molecules are usually secreted at a low level by individual bacteria. At low cell density, the molecules may just diffuse away. At high cell density, the local concentration of signaling molecules may exceed its threshold level, and trigger changes in gene expressions. Gram-positive bacteria use autoinducing peptide (AIP) as their autoinducers. When gram-positive bacteria detect high concentration of AIP in the environment, AIP bind to a receptor to activate kinase. The kinase phosphorylates a transcription factor, which regulated gene transcription. This is called a two-component system. Another possible mechanism is that AIP is transported into the cytosol, and binds directly to a transcription factor to initiate or inhibit transcription.