Quorum sensing in Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Vibrio harveyi: A new family of genes responsible for autoinducer production

In bacteria, the regulation of gene expression in response to changes in cell density is called quorum sensing. Quorum-sensing bacteria produce, release, and respond to hormone-like molecules (autoinducers) that accumulate in the external environment as the cell population grows. In the marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi two parallel quorum-sensing systems exist, and each is composed of a sensor-autoinducer pair. V. harveyi reporter strains …