Bacterial Signalling

Bacteria use small chemical molecules called autoinducers to communicate with one another by a process called quorum sensing. This process enables a population of bacteria to regulate behaviours which are only productive when many bacteria act in concert as a group, similarly to what happens with multi-cellular organisms. Behaviours regulated by quorum sensing are often crucial for successful bacterial-host relationships whether symbiotic and pathogenic. In this laboratory biochemical and genetic approaches are used to study the molecular mechanisms underlying quorum sensing, with an emphasis on systems promoting bacterial inter-species communication.