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SUMMARY:LMB Seminar - Quorum Sensing Across Domains: From Viruses to Bacte
 ria to Eukaryotes - Bonnie Bassler\, Princeton University
DTSTART:20251013T100000Z
DTEND:20251013T110000Z
UID:TALK230215@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Scientific Meetings Co-ordinator
DESCRIPTION:Bacteria communicate with one another via the production and d
 etection of secreted signal molecules called autoinducers. This cell-to-ce
 ll communication process\, called “Quorum Sensing”\, allows bacteria t
 o synchronize behavior on a population-wide scale. We showed that behavior
 s controlled by quorum sensing are ones that are unproductive when underta
 ken by an individual bacterium acting alone but become effective when unde
 rtaken in unison by the group. For example\, quorum sensing controls virul
 ence factor production and biofilm formation. We found that eukaryotes tha
 t harbor quorum-sensing bacteria participate in these chemical conversatio
 ns by providing the substrates bacteria need to make autoinducers. We also
  discovered that quorum-sensing autoinducer information can be hijacked by
  viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Thus\, interactions across the euk
 aryotic\, bacterial\, and viral domains all rely on quorum sensing. Presum
 ably\, each entity in these combined beneficial and parasitic partnerships
  is garnering the information encoded in quorum-sensing autoinducers to op
 timize its survival and reproduction. Using what we have learned\, we have
  built quorum-sensing disruption strategies for development into new anti-
 microbials. We have also engineered viruses to respond to user-defined inp
 uts\, rather than the bacterial autoinducers\, to make phage therapies tha
 t kill particular bacterial pathogens on demand.\n
LOCATION:In person in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre (CB2 0QH) and via Zoo
 m link https://mrc-lmb-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/99006584805?pwd=yFgF0P1zMvOJEKk
 OES4eNPpntaUodk.1
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