Listening in on bacteria: acyl-homoserine lactone signalling.

Clay Fuqua, E Peter Greenberg

Index: Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 3(9) , 685-95, (2002)

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Abstract

Bacterial cell-to-cell signalling has emerged as a new area in microbiology. Individual bacterial cells communicate with each other and co-ordinate group activities. Although a lot of detail is known about the mechanisms of a few well-characterized bacterial communication systems, other systems have been discovered only recently. Bacterial intercellular communication has become a target for the development of new anti-virulence drugs.