Kleerebezem M, Quadri L E
Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, The Netherlands.
Peptides. 2001 Oct;22(10):1579-96. doi: 10.1016/s0196-9781(01)00493-4.
Quorum sensing enables unicellular organisms to behave in a multicellular way by allowing population-wide synchronized adaptive responses that involve modulation of a wide range of physiological responses in a cell density-, cell proximity- or growth phase-dependent manner. Examples of processes modulated by quorum sensing are the development of genetic competence, conjugative plasmid transfer, sporulation and cell differentiation, biofilm formation, virulence response, production of antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides and toxins, and bioluminescence (for reviews see [38]). The cell-to-cell communication strategies involved in these processes are based on the utilization of small signal molecules produced and released into the environment by the microorganisms. These communication molecules are referred to as pheromones and act as chemical messengers that transmit information across space. The extracellular pheromones accumulate in the environment and trigger a response in the target cells when its concentration reaches a certain threshold value. Elucidation of the chemical nature of the pheromones modulating the processes mentioned above reveals that most of them are unmodified peptides, post-translationally modified peptides, N-acyl homoserine lactones, or butyrolactones. Lactone-based pheromones are the preferred communication signals in Gram-negative bacteria (for review see [47,48]), whereas peptide-based pheromones are the predominant extracellular signals among Gram-positive bacteria (for review see [37,61]). However, lactone-based pheromones are utilized as signals that modulate differentiation and secondary metabolism production in Streptomyces (for review see [20]). This review focuses on the major advances and current views of the peptide-pheromone dependent regulatory circuits involved in production of antimicrobial peptides in Gram-positive bacteria.
群体感应使单细胞生物能够以多细胞的方式行事，通过允许全群体同步的适应性反应，这些反应涉及以细胞密度、细胞接近度或生长阶段依赖的方式调节广泛的生理反应。群体感应调节的过程包括遗传感受态的发展、接合性质粒转移、孢子形成和细胞分化、生物膜形成、毒力反应、抗生素、抗菌肽和毒素的产生以及生物发光（综述见[38]）。这些过程中涉及的细胞间通讯策略基于微生物产生并释放到环境中的小信号分子的利用。这些通讯分子被称为信息素，作为化学信使在空间中传递信息。细胞外信息素在环境中积累，当其浓度达到一定阈值时，会在靶细胞中引发反应。对调节上述过程的信息素的化学性质的阐明表明，它们中的大多数是未修饰的肽、翻译后修饰的肽、N-酰基高丝氨酸内酯或丁内酯。基于内酯的信息素是革兰氏阴性菌中首选的通讯信号（综述见[47,48]），而基于肽的信息素是革兰氏阳性菌中主要的细胞外信号（综述见[37,61]）。然而，基于内酯的信息素被用作调节链霉菌分化和次级代谢产物产生的信号（综述见[20]）。本综述重点关注革兰氏阳性菌中与抗菌肽产生相关的肽-信息素依赖性调控回路的主要进展和当前观点。
