Macrophages employ quorum licensing to regulate collective activation

Collective sensing and collective responses in quorum-sensing bacteria

Bacteria often face fluctuating environments, and in response many species have evolved complex decision-making mechanisms to match their behaviour to the prevailing conditions. Some environmental cues provide direct and reliable information (such as nutrient concentrations) and can be responded to individually. Other environmental parameters are harder to infer and require a collective mechani...

MicroRNA-101 targets MAPK phosphatase-1 to regulate the activation of MAPKs in macrophages.

MAPK phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) is an archetypical member of the dual-specificity phosphatase family that deactivates MAPKs. Induction of MKP-1 has been implicated in attenuating the LPS- or peptidoglycan-induced biosynthesis of proinflammatory cytokines, but the role of noncoding RNA in the expression of the MKP-1 is still poorly understood. In this study, we show that MKP-1 is a direct target of m...

MAPKs in Macrophages Phosphatase-1 To Regulate the Activation of MicroRNA-101 Targets MAPK

Early activation of quorum sensing.

More than 30 years ago microbiologists found a way to induce luminescent bacteria to emit light prematurely. By adding cell-free culture fluid from a bright bioluminescent culture at high cell density to a nonluminous low-cell-density culture, they were able to eliminate the characteristic lag in bioluminescence (5, 12, 16). Nealson et al. proved that the “light switch” that controls the biolum...

Generic metric to quantify quorum sensing activation dynamics.

Quorum sensing (QS) enables bacteria to sense and respond to changes in their population density. It plays a critical role in controlling different biological functions, including bioluminescence and bacterial virulence. It has also been widely adapted to program robust dynamics in one or multiple cellular populations. While QS systems across bacteria all appear to function similarly-as density...