Quorum sensing control of bacterial biofilm formation and dispersal

这项研究的总体目标是了解群体感应，即控制细菌集体行为的细胞间通讯过程。本文的研究将探讨群体感应控制单物种和混合物种生物膜的形成和扩散。生物膜是表面附着的细菌群落，它们代表了地球上细菌生命的主要形式。细菌生物膜对于生态学、工业和医学至关重要。这项工作将通过揭示为这些多细胞系统提供弹性的机制来推动科学的进步。 这些研究可能导致控制细菌生物膜形成和扩散的综合策略，当生物膜形成对环境和人类健康产生负面影响时。 所有级别的学生都将通过参与这个项目得到培训。 促进科学教师和学生多样性的努力将继续下去，同时也将继续努力向全国公众提供信息。生物膜代表了地球上细菌生命的主要形式。细菌生物膜对于生态学、工业和医学至关重要。该项目将开发新的成像工具，能够解决活生物膜内单个细菌细胞的生长动力学和基因表达模式。基因调控程序将被定义为了解是什么驱动了生物膜的空间和时间组织，以及是什么机制为这些多细胞系统提供了弹性。其他目标将是发现群体感应如何控制克隆和非克隆生物膜的发展，揭示驱动生物膜生长模式和自由游泳状态之间转变的分子机制，并探索细菌转变为生物膜和生物膜的生态后果。在最一般的层面上，研究应该将群体感应研究从摇瓶培养的领域转移到新的领域，包括更接近细菌正常生活条件的现实空间和时间特征。因此，这些结果应该揭示出支持昂贵性状进化和维持的原则，这些性状在实验室条件下不是必需的，但在自然界中是至关重要和精确调控的。有了这些知识，该领域应该能够根据需要迅速向前发展，开发合成策略，以防止或促进群体感应，防止或促进单一物种和混合物种生物膜的形成，以及防止或促进生物膜的分散。

The overall goal of the research is to understand quorum sensing, the cell-to-cell communication process that controls bacterial collective behaviors. The studies proposed here will explore quorum-sensing control of single-species and mixed-species biofilm formation and dispersal. Biofilms are surface-attached bacterial communities and they represent the predominant form of bacterial life on Earth. Bacterial biofilms are crucial for ecology, industry, and medicine. This work will advance the progress of science by revealing the mechanisms that provide these multicellular systems their resilience. These investigations could lead to synthetic strategies for controlling bacterial biofilm formation and dispersal, when biofilm formation negatively impacts the environment and human health. Students at all levels will be trained by working on this project. Efforts to promote diversity among science faculty and students will continue, as will outreach efforts to inform the public across the nation.Biofilms are communities of cells adhered to surfaces. Biofilms represent the predominant form of bacterial life on Earth. Bacterial biofilms are crucial for ecology, industry, and medicine. This project will develop new imaging tools capable of resolving the growth dynamics and gene expression patterns of individual bacterial cells inside living biofilms. Gene regulation programs will be defined to understand what drives the spatial and temporal organization of biofilms and what mechanisms provide these multicellular systems their resilience. Other goals will be to discover how quorum sensing controls development of clonal and non-clonal biofilms, to reveal the molecular mechanisms driving transitions between the biofilm growth mode and the free-swimming state and to explore the ecological consequences to bacteria of transitioning into and out of biofilms. At the most general level, the research should move quorum-sensing studies out of the realm of shaken flask cultures and into new territory that includes realistic spatial and temporal features that more closely resemble the conditions under which bacteria normally live. Consequently, the results should reveal the principles underpinning the evolution and maintenance of expensive traits that are not essential under laboratory conditions, but are crucial and precisely regulated in nature. With this knowledge in hand, the field should be able to rapidly move forward to develop synthetic strategies to prevent or promote quorum sensing, to prevent or promote single-species and mixed-species biofilm formation, and to prevent or promote biofilm dispersal, as required.