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Implication of Quorum Sensing System in Biofilm Formation and Virulence pp 17–27Cite as

Quorum Sensing Systems and Persistence

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Abstract

In order to control the clonal population’s fitness to manage the expense of the resources by the community, it is not surprising that bacterial communities coordinate the formation of persister cells (bacterial subpopulations that survive stress conditions such as antibiotic or environmental threats). The development of these persister cells is linked to the activity of intercellular signaling molecules. Among them, we focus on acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL), the competence-stimulating peptide (CSP), indole (IND) and autoinducer-2 (AI-2), all involved in the quorum sensing systems activation in several pathogens. In this work, we will describe the action of these molecules related with quorum sensing systems in Gram positive Streptococcus mutans and Staphylococcus aureus and in Gram negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Acinetobacter spp. bacteria.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the financing by grants PI13/02390 and PI16/01163 awarded to M. Tomás within the State Plan for R+D+I 2013–2016 (National Plan for Scientific Research, Technological Development and Innovation 2008–2011) and co-financed by the ISCIII-Deputy General Directorate of evaluation and Promotion of Research-European Regional Development Fund “A way of Making Europe” and Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER. M.Tomás was financially supported by the Miguel Servet Research Programme (SERGAS and ISCIII). L. Fernández-García was financially supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Xunta de Galicia (GAIN, Axencia de Innovación). Finally, we would to thank to Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI), Spain (RD12/0015/0010, RD16/0016/0001 and RD16/0016/0006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deparment of Microbiology, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario (CHUAC-INIBIC, A Coruña), La Coruña, Spain

    Laura Fernandez-García, Lucia Blasco, Rocío Trastoy & Maria Tomás

  2. Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico

    Rodolfo García-Contreras

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Thomas K. Wood

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Thomas K. Wood

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  1. Laura Fernandez-García
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  2. Lucia Blasco
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  3. Rocío Trastoy
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  4. Rodolfo García-Contreras
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  5. Thomas K. Wood
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  6. Maria Tomás
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Correspondence to Maria Tomás .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Krishna University, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Pallaval Veera Bramhachari

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Fernandez-García, L., Blasco, L., Trastoy, R., García-Contreras, R., Wood, T.K., Tomás, M. (2018). Quorum Sensing Systems and Persistence. In: Pallaval Veera Bramhachari (eds) Implication of Quorum Sensing System in Biofilm Formation and Virulence. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2429-1_3

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