Bacterial conversations:talking,listening and eavesdropping.A NERC Discussion Meeting held at the Royal Society on 7 December 2005

摘要

One fascinating recent discovery in microbiology is that bacteria can communicate with each other-and there is increasing evidence that bacterial communication is also very important for higher organisms.The process of communication is termed 'quorum sensing(QS)';it is a density-dependent process that involves the production of extracellular,diffusible signal molecules that coordinate gene expression.The term 'quorum sensing' was coined by Steve Winans,one of the speakers at the meeting.