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Impacts of Quorum Sensing on Microbial Metabolism and Human Health

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Future Trends in Biotechnology

Part of the book series: Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology ((ABE,volume 131))

Abstract

Bacteria were considered to be lonely ‘mutes’ for hundreds of years. However, recently it was found that bacteria usually coordinate their behaviors at the population level by producing (speaking), sensing (listening), and responding to small signal molecules. This so-called quorum sensing (QS) regulation enables bacteria to live in a ‘society’ with cell–cell communication and controls many important bacterial behaviors. In this chapter, QS systems and their signal molecules for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria are introduced. Most interestingly, QS regulates the important bacterial behaviors such as metabolism and pathogenesis. QS-regulated microbial metabolism includes antibiotic synthesis, pollutant biodegradation, and bioenergy production, which are very relevant to human health. QS is also well-known for its involvement in bacterial pathogenesis, such as iin nfections by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Novel disease diagnosis strategies and antimicrobial agents have also been developed based on QS regulation on bacterial infections. In addition, to meet the requirements for the detection/quantification of QS signaling molecules for research and application, different biosensors have been constructed, which will also be reviewed here. QS regulation is essential to bacterial survival and important to human health. A better understanding of QS could lead better control/manipulation of bacteria, thus making them more helpful to people.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project Nos. 30821005 and 20876096) and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Nos. 2009CB118906 and 2012CB721006). YCY thanks the financial support from the Biofuels Institute and the start-up grant from Jiangsu University. JJZ appreciates the National 985 Project and the University Distinguished Professorship program (SJTU).

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  1. Laboratory of Molecular Biochemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, 200240, Shanghai, China

    Jian-Jiang Zhong

  2. Biofuels Institute, School of the Environment, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, 212013, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China

    Yang-Chun Yong

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  1. School of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, Bio-Building #3-311, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Dong-Chuan Road 800, Shanghai, 200240, China, People's Republic

    Jian-Jiang Zhong

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Yong, YC., Zhong, JJ. (2012). Impacts of Quorum Sensing on Microbial Metabolism and Human Health. In: Zhong, JJ. (eds) Future Trends in Biotechnology. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, vol 131. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10_2012_138

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