Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
From surrounding cells
Peptide pheromones
Cell-density
dependent signals
Histidine kinase
Response regulator
pp
hk
rr
Transcriptional
responses
Genes for communication modules
Behavioral response
bacteriocin
virulence
etc.
Fig. 15.11 Mechanisms underlying
quorum sensing
in bacteria. Quorum-sensing bacteria carry four
classes of genes (see the four
dark bars
along the DNA symbolized by the horizontal line) coding for
(1) pheromones (also called
autoinducers
, symbolized by
triangles
), i.e., small signal molecules
secreted into the extracellular medium, (2) receptor (see the
dark sphere
) for recognizing pheromones
(mainly fromother bacteria) and having histidine kinase activity, (3) response regulator (see the
white
sphere
) required to transduce the extracellular signal, and (4) genes required for behavioral responses
such as production of bacteriocins (proteins that kill certain strains of bacteria), biofilm formation (for
group protection), and virulence (ability to overwhelm host's immune system response) (Adopted
from the figure published at
http://www.sibelle.info/oped31.htm
)
research on quorum sensing. To the best of my knowledge, Princeton is a good
candidate for X, but unfortunately, the name Princeton has already been used to label
the self-organizing reaction-diffusion system responsible for the origin of biological
information proposed by P. Anderson and his coworkers at Princeton University in
the early 1980s, namely, the Princetonator (Ji 1991a, pp. 224-225) (see Fig.
13.3
).
To get out of this dilemma, it is suggested here that a city nearby Princeton be
commandeered
to serve as Princeton's surrogate. Trenton may be the logical choice
for this purpose, since Trenton is the capital city of the State of New Jersey where
Princeton University is located. Hence, we may refer to any self-organizing
