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Significance of Quorum Sensing and Biofilm Formation in Medicine and Veterinary Sciences

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Implication of Quorum Sensing and Biofilm Formation in Medicine, Agriculture and Food Industry

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Abstract

Quorum sensing (QS) is a coordination of a group of organisms to exhibit a specific action. It is an acquired social behavior presented to perform either symbiotic or pathogenic activity; however, most of the cases in the absence of QS, the decision to execute certain actions has not been performed. Therefore, QS is also termed as “collective decisions”; it is induced and executed by signaling molecules when the signaling molecule crosses a certain threshold. QS phenomenon is shown by many bacteria and fungi and yeast; recently, viruses also have shown to communicate via QS. In modern research era, study of QS is of most interest for the majority of human healthcare as well as animal health reasons. In general, a key approach perceived is inhibition of QS in case of infections or biofilm formation. Inhibition of QS can reduce the initiation of disease and its severity. Hence, inhibition of QS is of significant interest in human and animal healthcare for developing diagnostic and therapeutic tool. Inhibition of QS is an emerging tool to perform the antimicrobial activity by using targeting agents at either three different levels: production, spread, or acceptance of the signal. The current review primarily emphasizes diverse mechanisms of QS, its inhibition, recent challenges and advances in the field, and its clinical implications in human and animal healthcare.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Krishna University, Machilipatnam, NIV Pune and NCCS Pune for the support extended.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Author notes

  1. All Authors Prudhvi Lal Bhukya, Renuka Nawadkar, Pallaval Veera Bramhachari and Ganugula Mohana Sheela have equally contributed

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hepatitis Division, National Institute of Virology, Pune, India

    Prudhvi Lal Bhukya

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

    Prudhvi Lal Bhukya

  3. Department of Pathogenesis and Cellular Response, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, Maharashtra, India

    Renuka Nawadkar

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

    Pallaval Veera Bramhachari & Ganugula Mohana Sheela

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  1. Prudhvi Lal Bhukya
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  3. Pallaval Veera Bramhachari
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  4. Ganugula Mohana Sheela
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ganugula Mohana Sheela .

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Editors and Affiliations

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

    Pallaval Veera Bramhachari

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Bhukya, P.L., Nawadkar, R., Bramhachari, P.V., Sheela, G.M. (2019). Significance of Quorum Sensing and Biofilm Formation in Medicine and Veterinary Sciences. In: Bramhachari, P. (eds) Implication of Quorum Sensing and Biofilm Formation in Medicine, Agriculture and Food Industry . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9409-7_7

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