UNIVERSITATEA DE TIINE AGRICOLE I

MEDICIN VETERINAR CLUJ NAPOCA

QUORUM SENSING

an overview of coordinated bacterial

social behaviors

SILVIAN GURANDA, ELENA MARIAN, MARINA SPNU

 1. INTRODUCTION
Infections - leading cause of death (beginning of the
20th century)

Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)

Penicillin, 1929 new hope for winning the fierce

historical battle against infectious diseases

Flemming had warned on the phenomenon of

antibiotic resistance

It took a few decades to understand from

clinical practice that bacteria:

are continously adapting to environment

they develop new ways to survive

 1. INTRODUCTION

Bacteria not individuals, but complex communities

Communication
a homeostatic tendency
a coordinated response toward the
environment

Paradigm shift:
bacteria are not simple cells living as individuals,
but they present an organized social
behavior which implies
a communication system between bacteria
(either of the same type or of distant genres).

Discovery of a system of stimuli and response

depending on bacterial population density
Quorum sensing
 2. What is QUORUM SENSING?
Bacteria have a common language regardless of their specie/genre

Information is provided and delivered using chemical signal

molecules produced by bacteria and detected by receptors from
within their membranes. When the receptors get saturated, they
become activated and can trigger a response by altering gene
transcript modulation, so that bacterial population change its
behavior.
Quorum Sensing a social feedback mechanism through which the
information supplied by signal molecules triggers a feedback in
bacterias behavior (coordinated/synchornized)
 2. What is QUORUM SENSING?
Quorum-sensing - a term first used in a review by Fuqua et al. in
1994, referring to a stimuli-response system correlated to a
threshold density.
a minimum threshold level of individual cells mass is required to
produce a change in bacterial populations behavior
the bacterial population senses how large is the cells number and
synchronizes its actions when a threshold value is reached
 2. What is QUORUM SENSING?
Requirements: produce, release and detect chemical signals
(autoinducers)

WHY is it critical for large communities of cells to synchronize their

activities?

It would be inefficient for just one or a few bacteria to produce a

gene product (enzyme, virulence protein etc.) because the
concentration would be too low to trigger an effect -> surviving
 2. What is QUORUM SENSING?
HOW is it functioning?
A few bacteria -> the autoinducers level is low.
The more bacteria grow and multiply, the more autoinducers are
produced.
When a threshold value of the concentration of autoinducers is
reached, the cell membrane receptors are activated due to
saturation and they induce the transcription of some specific genes
which create a new gene product -> behavior changes
 3. BACTERIAL LANGUAGE
Signaling agents: various types of molecules
Autoinducer-2 (AI-2): signaling molecules that work in both Gram-
negative and Gram-positive bacteria
The quorum-sensing phenomenon allows both Gram-negative and
Gram-positive bacteria to sense one another, once a threshold number
of bacterial cells is reached -> change of behavior via altered gene
expression
As a result, the bacterial community may regulate a variety of
physiological activities, such as:
Virulence
Symbiosis
Biofilm formation
Motility
Antibiotic production
Enzymes production
Virulence proteins production
 3. BACTERIAL LANGUAGE
Gram-negative bacteria the signal molecule is acyl homoserine
lactone (AHL).

When it reaches a threshold concentration in the environment it

binds and activates a regulatory protein which then binds to a
specific site of the cell DNA.

The binding of this regulatory protein transcription activator results

in production of the specific quorum-dependent protein as well as
more enzymes to make AHL
 3. BACTERIAL LANGUAGE
Gram-positive bacteria a precursor oligopeptide is cleaved into
functional signal molecules of 10-20 aminoacids which are actively
transported out of the cell through a special transporter protein.
When the signal oligopeptides reach a threshold concentration they
are detected by a sensor protein on the surface of the cell. The
oligopeptide reacts with the sensor protein that becomes
phosphorylated on the inside of the cell membrane.
The phosphate is then transferred to a response regulator protein
which allows it to bind to a specific site on the DNA. This results in an
alteration in the transcription of target genes. Quorum-dependent
proteins such as virulence factors are produced.
 4. Quorum-sensing CIRCUITS

4.1 Parallel QS circuits

Vibrio harveyi, a bioluminescent marine Gram-negative

bacterium

Vibrio cholerae, a human pathogen responsible for the endemic

diarrheal disease cholera.

4.1 Serries QS circuits

Pseudomonas aeruginosa - a common soil organism, can

seriously affect cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and those having
chronic respiratory infection. Using quorum-sensing, P.
aeruginosa can control adhesion, biofilm formation, and virulence
factor expression, making it difficult to combat the lungs infection.
 4. Quorum-sensing CIRCUITS

4.2Other types of QS circuits

There are circuits that permit reversion
to the original set of behaviors:
QS circuits with on-off switches
(in Gram-positive bacterium,
such as Streptococcus pneumoniae)
Agrobacterium tumefaciens the causal agent of tumours in plants
(crown gall disease) through transducing (transfer and integration) of a
tumor-inducing (TI) plasmid into plant cells.
The tumors produce opines, a nutrient
for A. tumefaciens. The QS circuit is
responsive to host cues (activated only
by simultaneous signals produced by both
plant and bacteria. The mobilization of the
tumor-inducing plasmid is possible only in
the proximity of the plant because it requires detection of opines by a
cytoplasmic receptor .
 5. Quorum-quenching

s
 6. Conclusions

Bacterial genomes are open to genetic information exchange, thus

spreading antibiotic resistance

Louis Pasteur: If we could intervene in the antagonism observed

between some bacteria, it would offer perhaps the greatest hopes for
therapeutics
Thank you for your attention!