Communication is an essential aspect of life on earth. Each and every species communicate with each other in their own ways. Do you know that microorganisms even though being unseen with naked eyes can communicate among themselves. If you are not aware of this, here’s the surprise that microorganisms do this via a mechanism termed as Quorum Sensing.
Quorum Sensing is mostly common in bacteria among the microorganisms. It involves cell-to-cell communication among bacteria via chemical signaling molecules termed as autoinducers. Bacterial cells keep on producing these molecules but its effects depend on their population density.
Once the population density of bacterial cells increases and reaches a threshold, these cells become capable together to detect autoinducers in the environment. These autoinducers bind to receptors present in the bacteria which leads to activation of gene expression for phenomena like biofilm formation, enzyme secretion, bioluminescence, release of virulence factors and others. These phenomena help bacteria to protect themselves from external threats and thus act as defense .
As a single bacterium requires a lot of energy for producing defense molecules like virulence factors and enzymes, thus they act in a group via mechanism like quorum sensing. This also helps them in sharing nutrients and protecting each other. Thus, bacteria fight like a squad against the threats which helps in effectively defending themselves. This kind of a collective coordinated behavior is shocking to believe for existence.
Don’t you think that we humans should also take lessons from this and support each other for building a better tomorrow? If you are aware of any similar mechanisms in the nature which we can look up to. Share them be low
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