From the smallest cell to humans, most organisms can sense their local population density and change behavior in crowded environments. For bacteria and social insects, this behavior is referred to as "quorum sensing." Researchers ...
Materials Science
Jul 25, 2017
0
97
Viruses need hosts. Whether it's measles, the flu or coronavirus, viral pathogens cannot multiply or infect other organisms without the assistance of their hosts' cellular infrastructure. However, humans are not the only ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 4, 2024
0
43
Bugged by freeloaders? You are not alone, and leeching off others is not just a human problem. In fact, it is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, where even some cheater species of bacteria exhibit such selfish behavior.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 29, 2022
2
239
Oregon State University scientists have identified proteins that prevent a bacterial cell from becoming misguided by its own messaging, allowing it to instead wait for collective communication from its group.
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 13, 2022
0
71
Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have redesigned how harmless E. coli bacteria "talk" to each other. The new genetic circuit could become a useful new tool for synthetic biologists who, as a field, are ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 5, 2020
1
368
Scientists from the University of Groningen have succeeded in incorporating a light-controlled switch into a molecule used by bacteria for quorum sensing—a process by which bacteria communicate and subsequently control ...
Materials Science
Apr 15, 2019
0
49
Bacteria can become insensitive to antibiotics by picking up resistance genes from the environment. Unfortunately for patients, the stress response induced by antibiotics activates competence in microorganisms, the ability ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 28, 2018
1
74
Researchers have discovered a link between bacteria metabolism and cell-to-cell communication, potentially providing a target for new antivirulence and antibiofilm drugs.
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 1, 2018
0
76
A study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry is the first to describe a signaling pathway that affects communication—a process called quorum sensing—between Streptococcus bacteria cells.
Biochemistry
Feb 6, 2018
2
404
Whether growing in a puddle of dirty water or inside the human body, large groups of bacteria must coordinate their behavior to perform essential tasks that they would not be able to carry out individually. Bacteria achieve ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 21, 2017
0
119
