Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing01:28

Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing

373
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,...
373
Bacterial Signaling01:30

Bacterial Signaling

39.4K
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...
39.4K
Microbial Growth Measurement: Indirect Methods01:27

Microbial Growth Measurement: Indirect Methods

1.2K
Estimating microbial growth is essential for understanding population dynamics and environmental adaptations. Indirect methods provide valuable insights by measuring parameters such as turbidity, metabolic activity, and biomass, enabling efficient and reproducible assessments.During exponential growth, microbial cells scatter light proportionally to their biomass, a principle used in turbidity measurements. About one million cells per milliliter produce detectable scattering, which a...
1.2K
Synthetic Biology02:55

Synthetic Biology

5.4K
Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary science that involves using principles from disciplines such as engineering, molecular biology, cell biology, and systems biology. It involves remodeling existing organisms from nature or constructing completely new synthetic organisms for applications such as protein or enzyme production, bioremediation, value-added macromolecule production, and the addition of desirable traits to crops, to name a few.
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...
5.4K
Modern Molecular Taxonomy01:29

Modern Molecular Taxonomy

461
Advancements in molecular biology have revolutionized the identification and characterization of bacteria, with multiple methods leveraging DNA sequencing for enhanced precision. As sequencing technologies improve and costs decline, these approaches are increasingly used in clinical, environmental, and evolutionary studies.Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) examines several housekeeping genes, essential chromosomal genes encoding cellular functions, to distinguish strains. Approximately...
461
Microbial Growth Measurement: Direct Methods01:23

Microbial Growth Measurement: Direct Methods

1.3K
Direct methods for measuring microbial populations in a culture are essential tools in microbiology, providing quantitative data for various applications. Among these, microscopic counts, plate counts, and serial dilution are widely used techniques, each with unique principles and applications.Microscopic CountsMicroscopic counting involves the use of a Petroff-Hausser chamber, a specialized microscope slide with a grid and defined depth. By observing a liquid culture under a microscope,...
1.3K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Daring few, patient many: Division of labor in decentralized foraging collectives.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Information-seeking decision strategies mitigate risk in dynamic, uncertain environments.

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·2026
Same author

Fast, long-range intercellular signal propagation through growth-assisted positive feedback.

Cell systems·2026
Same author

Bayesian Inference of Gene Regulatory Networks at Stochastic Steady State.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Attractor learning for spatiotemporally chaotic dynamical systems using echo state networks with transfer learning.

Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.)·2026
Same author

Complexity and dynamics of partially symmetric random neural networks.

ArXiv·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Assembly and Quantification of Co-Cultures Combining Heterotrophic Yeast with Phototrophic Sugar-Secreting Cyanobacteria
05:44

Assembly and Quantification of Co-Cultures Combining Heterotrophic Yeast with Phototrophic Sugar-Secreting Cyanobacteria

Published on: December 27, 2024

1.3K

Majority sensing in synthetic microbial consortia.

Razan N Alnahhas1, Mehdi Sadeghpour1,2, Ye Chen3

  • 1Department of Biosciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.

Nature Communications
|July 23, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study presents a synthetic gene circuit for microbial consortia that senses and responds to strain ratios. This advance enables predictable control of multi-strain microbial systems.

More Related Videos

Assessing the Viability of a Synthetic Bacterial Consortium on the In Vitro Gut Host-microbe Interface
10:24

Assessing the Viability of a Synthetic Bacterial Consortium on the In Vitro Gut Host-microbe Interface

Published on: July 4, 2018

12.1K
Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Microbial Communities for Generating Second-Generation Biofertilizers
04:29

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Microbial Communities for Generating Second-Generation Biofertilizers

Published on: May 24, 2024

1.4K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Assembly and Quantification of Co-Cultures Combining Heterotrophic Yeast with Phototrophic Sugar-Secreting Cyanobacteria
05:44

Assembly and Quantification of Co-Cultures Combining Heterotrophic Yeast with Phototrophic Sugar-Secreting Cyanobacteria

Published on: December 27, 2024

1.3K
Assessing the Viability of a Synthetic Bacterial Consortium on the In Vitro Gut Host-microbe Interface
10:24

Assessing the Viability of a Synthetic Bacterial Consortium on the In Vitro Gut Host-microbe Interface

Published on: July 4, 2018

12.1K
Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Microbial Communities for Generating Second-Generation Biofertilizers
04:29

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Microbial Communities for Generating Second-Generation Biofertilizers

Published on: May 24, 2024

1.4K

Area of Science:

  • Synthetic Biology
  • Microbial Consortia
  • Genetic Engineering

Background:

  • Designing complex synthetic biocircuits for multi-strain microbial consortia is challenging.
  • Predictable responses to varying consortium compositions are needed for distributed computations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a two-strain gene circuit that senses and responds to the majority strain within a microbial consortium.
  • To enable predictable control of gene expression based on strain ratios.

Main Methods:

  • Engineered a co-repressive genetic system where each strain produces a signaling molecule.
  • Implemented a system where signals down-regulate orthogonal signaling molecule production.
  • Developed a mathematical model to analyze consortium dynamics and response to external induction.

Main Results:

  • The gene circuit successfully links gene expression to the ratio of strains, not just population size.
  • External induction was used to control the population ratio threshold for response.
  • Mathematical modeling elucidated the mechanisms governing consortium dynamics.

Conclusions:

  • Simple synthetic gene circuits can reliably sense and respond to the composition of microbial populations.
  • This work provides a foundation for designing sophisticated distributed genetic circuits in synthetic biology.