细菌细胞间通讯的群感效应

Quorum-Sensing: A Mechanism of Bacterial Cell-to-Cell Communication

自然界中的细菌大多数以生物膜的形式存在,这种存在方式增强了细菌对环境的适应性和病原菌的致病性。近年来研究表明,细菌群感效应(quorumsensing)是调控生物膜形成和其它生物学功能的机制。细菌能够分泌特定的信号分子并感应它的浓度,当信号分子浓度达到阈值时,细菌就能够引发包括致病基因在内的相关基因的表达以适应环境的变化。由于生物膜的形成是病原菌致病性和其它要求一定细胞密度才能产生功能的基础,所以细菌群感效应的发现为防止病原菌的毒害作用提供了新的思路。

It is well known that, in nature, most bacteria prefer to form complex surface-attached communicates called biofilm, which make the bacteria have more chances to survive in changed environment and increases their production of virulence factors. Recently,researchers showed that quorum-sensing plays a very important role in biofilm formation and other bacteria physiological processes. Bacteria can secret and detect specific signaling molecule, when the density of the signals reached the threshold, it will activate multiple target genes, including the virulence gene of pathogens, to adapt to the changed environment. These findings provide us new methods for inhibiting production of virulence in pathogens, for biofilm is the base of the production of virulence and other density-dependent physiological processe.