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Eukaryotes learn how to count: quorum sensing by yeast
- 1 Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA;
- 2 Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Signaling mechanisms that govern physiological and morphological responses to changes in cell density are common in bacteria. Quorum sensing, as such signal transduction processes are called, involves the production of, release of, and response to hormone-like molecules (autoinducers) that accumulate in the external environment as the cell population grows. Quorum sensing is found in a wide variety of bacteria, both Gram positive and Gram negative, and the spectrum of physiological functions that can be regulated is impressive indeed. Variation in the nature of the extracellular signal, in the signal detection machinery, and in the mechanisms of signal transmission demonstrates the evolutionary adaptability of quorum sensing systems for multiple uses. One testament to the range of these uses and to the general importance of quorum sensing in bacterial physiology comes from a PubMed search using “quorum” as the query: Well over 1000 articles have been published in the last 10 years. Here, we review the universal strategies that characterize bacterial quorum sensing and provide a glimpse of the diverse physiological settings in which it operates. We then discuss recent evidence for quorum sensing in different fungal species and conclude with an especially compelling case in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, described by Chen and Fink (2006) in this issue of Genes & Development.
Quorum sensing: the bacterial paradigm
Many groups of bacteria exhibit complex patterns of coordinated behavior, and diffusible chemical signals have been either demonstrated or suspected to coordinate these activities. In the past 15 yr, scientists have documented a rich lexicon of signaling systems in many groups of microorganisms (for review, see Pappas et al. 2004). These chemical signals, sometimes referred to as autoinducers, are essentially bacterial pheromones and are required for diverse behaviors, including bioluminescence, the horizontal transfer of DNA, the formation of biofilms, and the production of pathogenic factors, antibiotics, and other …
