BIOL 1080 Lecture Notes - Quorum Sensing, Bioluminescence, Biofilm
8 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Ten times more bacterial cells then human cells on a human being. Bacteria are involved in keeping us alive, but there are some notorious bacteria that are really bad. Certain type of bacteria gave off light when there was dense gathering of them, but didn"t when they were in a dilute solution. Bacteria can sense more bacteria by having molecules floating around them which interact with other bacterial molecules to sense how many are surrounding them. Bacteria talk to each other: bacteria have signal producing protein and signal receptor protein which acts as a lock and key with the sensing molecule. When there are enough molecules, light is turned on in all bacteria. Act as multicellular entities: pathogens communicate in a similar way to stay dormant and wait until they detect enough other bacteria around them to have the ability to overcome a large host (human).
