Talking to Themselves: Autoregulation and Quorum Sensing in Fungi

Talking to themselves: autoregulation and quorum sensing in fungi.

Quorum sensing mechanisms in fungi

In the environment, cells from microorganisms can communicate to each other through the secretion of signal molecules, so-called autoinducers, which accumulate in the medium as the population density grows. When the concentration of these molecules reaches a threshold, different genes are induced or repressed, and processes such as sporulation, pathogenesis or symbiosis are initiated. These mec...

Quorum Sensing in Fungi: Q&A

I know that the accumulation of certain molecules called ‘‘quorum-sensing factors’’ in bacteria, as cultures grow dense, can control group behavior and that these include virulence traits and the formation of drug-resistant microbial biofilms. I am familiar with some of the molecules that mediate the sensing of organism density such as homoserine lactones and peptides. However, I don’t know abo...

Quorum sensing in fungi--a review.

Quorum sensing (QS) is a mechanism of microbial communication dependent on cell density that can regulate several behaviors in bacteria such as secretion of virulence factors, biofilm formation, competence and bioluminescence. The existence of fungal QS systems was revealed ten years ago after the discovery that farnesol controls filamentation in the pathogenic polymorphic fungus Candida albica...

Perspectives on Quorum sensing in Fungi

Keeping a pace with Quorum sensing, analyzing communication shows the close co-evolution of fungi with organisms present in their environment giving insights into multispecies communication. Subsequently, many examples of cell density dependent regulation by extracellular factors have been found in diverse microorganisms. The widespread incidence of diverse quorum-sensing systems strongly sugge...