Quorum Sensing: the Explanation of a Curious Phenomenon Reveals a Common Characteristic of Bacteria

作者：John Woodland Hastings, Everett Peter Greenberg · 发表于：Journal of Bacteriology · 年份：1999 · DOI：10.1128/jb.181.9.2667-2668.1999 · 被引用次数：164 · 研究领域：bioluminescence and chemiluminescence research、Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing、Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies

In the 1960s bacterial bioluminescence attracted increasing interest among microbiologists and biochemists. Plating seawater samples taken from virtually any place on the globe revealed the presence of bioluminescent bacteria, but at a rather low level of abundance, not more than a few cells per milliliter. A question frequently raised was what function the light emission might have in such “free-living” planktonic bioluminescent bacteria. The question was even more compelling because the maximum light emission of these bacteria under ideal conditions in the laboratory is about 103 to 104 photons s−1 cell−1. Even at this level of luminescence, populations found free in seawater would produce nowhere near enough light to have physiological or ecological significance.