Chemical Society Reviews 2008-07-01

Expanding dialogues: from natural autoinducers to non-natural analogues that modulate quorum sensing in Gram-negative bacteria.

Grant D Geske, Jennifer C O'Neill, Helen E Blackwell

Index: Chem. Soc. Rev. 37(7) , 1432-47, (2008)

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Abstract

Bacteria are capable of "communicating" their local population densities via a process termed quorum sensing (QS). Gram-negative bacteria use N-acylated l-homoserine lactones (AHLs), in conjunction with their cognate LuxR-type receptors, as their primary signalling circuit for QS. In this critical review, we examine AHL signalling in Gram-negative bacteria with a primary focus on the design of non-natural AHLs, their structure-activity relationships, and their application in chemical biological approaches to study QS (72 references).