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Establishing bacterial communities by 'word of mouth': LuxS and autoinducer 2 in biofilm development

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 6, pages 635–643 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Multicellular bacterial communities (biofilms) abound in nature, and their successful formation and survival is likely to require cell–cell communication — including quorum sensing — to co-ordinate appropriate gene expression. The only mode of quorum sensing that is shared by both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria involves the production of the signalling molecule autoinducer 2 by LuxS. A survey of the current literature reveals that luxS contributes to biofilm development in some bacteria. However, inconsistencies prevent biofilm development being attributed to the production of AI2 in all cases.

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Figure 1: The metabolites of the activated methyl cycle and related pathways.
Figure 2: Export and import of activated-methyl-cycle-linked molecules.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. Doherty and N. Halliday for help in the preparation of figure 1 and The Wellcome Trust for funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kim Rachael Hardie is at the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.,

    Kim Rachael Hardie

  2. Karin Heurlier is at the Department of Food Sciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington LE12 5RD, UK.,

    Karin Heurlier

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  1. Kim Rachael Hardie
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  2. Karin Heurlier
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Correspondence to Kim Rachael Hardie.

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DATABASES

Entrez Genome Project

Actinomyces naeslundii

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

Bacillus cereus

Bacillus subtilis

Escherichia coli

Haemophilus influenzae

Klebsiella pneumoniae

Lactobacillus reuteri

Lactobacillus rhamnosus

Listeria monocytogenes

Mycobacterium avium

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus epidermidis

Streptococcus mutans UA159

Vibrio harveyi

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Hardie, K., Heurlier, K. Establishing bacterial communities by 'word of mouth': LuxS and autoinducer 2 in biofilm development. Nat Rev Microbiol 6, 635–643 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1916

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