Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Genome Watch
  • Published:

Microbial murmurs — decoding hidden conversations between bacteria

This month’s Genome Watch highlights how a tailor-made search through bacterial genomes revealed the widespread presence of a new class of bacterial signalling peptides that lack conventional characteristics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Mukherjee, S. & Bassler, B. L. Bacterial quorum sensing in complex and dynamically changing environments. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 17, 371–382 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Do, H. et al. Leaderless secreted peptide signaling molecule alters global gene expression and increases virulence of a human bacterial pathogen. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, E8498–E8507 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Aggarwal, S. et al. The leaderless communication peptide (LCP) class of quorum-sensing peptides is broadly distributed among Firmicutes. Nat. Commun. 14, 5947 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Geistlinger, L. et al. BugSigDB captures patterns of differential abundance across a broad range of host-associated microbial signatures. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01872-y (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Watson, A. R. et al. Metabolic independence drives gut microbial colonization and resilience in health and disease. Genome Biol. 24, 78 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bastiaan W. Haak.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kullberg, R.F.J., Rozday, T.J. & Haak, B.W. Microbial murmurs — decoding hidden conversations between bacteria. Nat Rev Microbiol 22, 3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00991-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00991-2

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Microbiology

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Microbiology