Question

What exactly is Quorum sensing and are pheromones used in it?

Answer 1

Do you know about biofilms & how they form?

Answer 2

We just had a great seminar from a professor that studies biofilm formation and evolution on two bacteria that are common and dangerous pathogens in people with cystic fibrosis. Great stuff.

Answer 3

@mrdoldum i read one article about it during our microbiology course, it was cool, pretty dangerous though
its interesting how a group of bacteria that if are spread in the body individually - are less dangerous & easier to get rid of it by immune system or antibiotics
but once these groups come together & form a biofilm - their danger exceeds to whole new level and they develop drug resistance x.x so they are pretty tough to tackle

Answer 4

correction* once these individual bacterium come together*

Answer 5

Tools for tracking quorum-sensing signals in bacterial colonies. ... Pathogenic bacteria use quorum sensing to form hard-to-treat biofilm infections in the lungs; ....

Answer 6

@somy @munna14 Outside of the lab, early all bacteria exists as biofilms. The reason they are hard to treat is because they release a lot of slimy polysaccharaides that protect them from the drugs every reaching them. Also, bacteria within the film have a higher chance of surviving and passing on rare mutations. Research shows that over time, a biofilm with cause less mutation rate to go down and virulence of the bacteria to go down, but enhance biofilm forming genes and physically protect the bacteria from drugs.

Answer 7

yeah heard all of those, thats quite not good for us tho