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Related Concept Videos

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Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing

Quorum sensing is a mechanism of bacterial communication that enables coordinated gene expression in response to changes in population density. This facilitates collective behaviors that enhance survival, resource acquisition, and ecological adaptation. This process relies on small signaling molecules called autoinducers that accumulate as bacterial populations grow. When a critical threshold concentration of autoinducers is reached, bacterial cells collectively modify gene expression,...
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Bacterial signaling can occur within bacteria (intracellular) or between bacteria (intercellular). At times, a group of bacteria behaves like a community. To achieve this, they engage in quorum sensing, the perception of higher cell density that causes changes in gene expression. Quorum sensing involves both extracellular and intracellular signaling. The signaling cascade starts with a molecule called an autoinducer (AI). Individual bacteria produce AIs that move out of the bacterial cell...
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Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, or Real-time RT-PCR, is an analytical tool used to determine the expression level of target genes. The method involves converting mRNA to complementary DNA with the help of an enzyme known as reverse transcriptase, followed by the PCR amplification of the cDNA. These two processes can be performed simultaneously in a single tube or separately as a two-step reaction.
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Generic metric to quantify quorum sensing activation dynamics.

Anand Pai1, Jaydeep K Srimani, Yu Tanouchi

  • 1Department of Biomedical Engineering ‡Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.

ACS Synthetic Biology
|September 10, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Quorum sensing (QS) allows bacteria to control gene expression based on population density. A new metric, "sensing potential," quantifies QS dynamics for predicting target gene activation and optimizing synthetic biology applications.

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Area of Science:

  • Bacterial communication and gene regulation
  • Synthetic biology and genetic circuit design
  • Systems biology and computational modeling

Background:

  • Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell-to-cell communication mechanism used by bacteria to regulate collective behaviors based on population density.
  • QS controls critical functions like bioluminescence and virulence, and is utilized in synthetic biology for programming cellular dynamics.
  • Diversity in QS signaling components and network architectures complicates quantitative analysis and prediction of target gene activation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a generalizable method for characterizing the regulatory properties of diverse bacterial quorum sensing systems.
  • To establish a quantitative criterion for predicting target gene activation dynamics controlled by QS.
  • To provide a framework for selecting and optimizing QS systems in synthetic biology applications.

Main Methods:

  • Development of simple kinetic models to capture the temporal dynamics of QS-controlled target gene activation.
  • Definition and application of a novel metric, 'sensing potential', derived from a single time point measurement.
  • Experimental validation using synthetic QS circuits constructed in Escherichia coli.

Main Results:

  • The dominant temporal dynamics of QS-controlled target activation can be effectively captured by the 'sensing potential' metric.
  • The 'sensing potential' provides a concise and quantitative measure for characterizing QS system behavior.
  • Experimental results in synthetic E. coli circuits validated the predictions derived from the kinetic models and the 'sensing potential' metric.

Conclusions:

  • A computational framework and experimental methodology are presented for characterizing diverse natural QS systems.
  • The 'sensing potential' metric offers a quantitative criterion for selecting or optimizing QS systems for synthetic biology.
  • This work facilitates a deeper understanding of QS regulatory properties and their application in engineered biological systems.