Inflammasome signaling can contribute to host innate immune defense against bacterial pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, bacterial evasion of host inflammasome activation is still poorly elucidated. Quorum sensing (QS) is a bacterial communication mechanism that promotes coordinated adaptation by triggering expression of a wide range of genes. QS is thought to strongly contribut...

Many opportunistic pathogenic bacteria rely on quorum sensing (QS) circuits as central regulators of virulence expression. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, QS-regulated gene expression contributes to the formation and maintenance of biofilms and their tolerance to conventional antimicrobials and the host innate immune system. Therefore, QS is an obvious target for a novel class of antimicrobial drugs...

We define the semi-classical quantum automatic complexity Qs(x) of a word x as the infimum in lexicographic order of those pairs of nonnegative integers (n, q) such that there is a subgroup G of the projective unitary group PU(n) with |G| ≤ q and with U0, U1 ∈ G such that, in terms of a standard basis {ek} and with Uz = ∏ k Uz(k), we have Uxe1 = e2 and Uye1 6= e2 for all y 6= x with |y| = |x|. ...

Gorgonian corals possess many novel natural products that could potentially mediate coral-bacterial interactions. Since many bacteria use quorum sensing (QS) signals to facilitate colonization of host organisms, regulation of prokaryotic cell-to-cell communication may represent an important bacterial control mechanism. In the present study, we examined extracts of twelve species of Caribbean go...

The aim of the current study was to determine how quorum sensing (QS) affects the production of secondary metabolites in Pseudomonas chlororaphis strain PA23. A phzR mutant (PA23phzR) and an N-acylhomoserine lactone (AHL)-deficient strain (PA23-6863) were generated that no longer inhibited the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in vitro. Both strains exhibited reduced pyrrolnitrin (PRN), ...

The opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the predominant micro-organism of chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. P. aeruginosa colonizes the CF lungs by forming biofilm structures in the alveoli. In the biofilm mode of growth the bacteria are highly tolerant to otherwise lethal doses of antibiotics and are protected from bactericidal activity of polymorphon...

Acyl-homoserine lactone-mediated quorum sensing (QS) regulates diverse activities in many species of Proteobacteria. QS-controlled genes commonly code for production of secreted or excreted public goods. The acyl-homoserine lactones are synthesized by members of the LuxI signal synthase family and are detected by cognate members of the LuxR family of transcriptional regulators. QS affords a mea...

With the rising development of bacterial resistance the search for new medical treatments beyond conventional antimicrobials has become a key aim of public health research. Possible innovative strategies include the inhibition of bacterial virulence. However, consideration must be given to the evolutionary and environmental consequences of such new interventions. Virulence and cooperative socia...

This paper continues the investigation of population P systems model [F. Bernardini, M. Gheorghe, Population P systems, Journal of Universal Computer Science 10 (5) (2004) 509–539] by considering bacterium quorum sensing (QS) phenomena as the basis of the new approach. A new computational model called QS P system is introduced. It is proved that QS P systems are able to simulate counter machine...

The polyglutamine diseases include at least nine neurodegenerative disorders. Accumulation of mutant protein with a toxic gain-in function in the nucleus appears to be the pathological basis of these diseases. In this issue of Neuron, La Spada et al. (2001) provide insight into the cell specificity of pathology for a polyglutamine disease by relating SCA7-induced retinal degeneration to a disru...