Small RNA-Based Regulation of Bacterial Quorum Sensing and Biofilm Formation

Quorum sensing is a vital property of bacteria that enables community-wide coordination of collective behaviors. A key example of such a behavior is biofilm formation, in which groups of bacteria invest in synthesizing a protective, joint extracellular matrix. Quorum sensing involves the production, release, and subsequent detection of extracellular signaling molecules called autoinducers. The architecture of quorum-sensing signal transduction pathways is highly variable among different species of bacteria, but frequently involves posttranscriptional regulation carried out by small regulatory RNA molecules. This review illustrates the diverse roles small trans-acting regulatory RNAs can play, from constituting a network's core to auxiliary roles in adjusting the rate of autoinducer synthesis, mediating cross talk among different parts of a network, or integrating different regulatory inputs to trigger appropriate changes in gene expression. The emphasis is on describing how the study of small RNA-based regulation in quorum sensing and biofilm formation has uncovered new general properties or expanded our understanding of bacterial riboregulation.