title: Quorum quenching and proactive host defense.
abstract: Both plants and humans have inducible defense mechanisms. This passive defense strategy leaves the host unprotected for a period of time until resistance is activated. Moreover, many bacterial pathogens have evolved cell-cell communication (quorum-sensing) mechanisms to mount population-density-dependent attacks to overwhelm the host's defense responses. Several chemicals and enzymes have been investigated for years for their potential to target the key components of bacterial quorum-sensing systems. These quorum-quenching reagents, which block bacterial cell-cell communications, can disintegrate a bacterial population-density-dependent attack. It has now been shown that a quorum-quenching mechanism can be engineered in plants and might be used as a strategy in controlling bacterial pathogens and to build up a proactive defense barrier.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 30 Medical Drive, Singapore 117609. lianhui@imcb.a-star.edu.sg
authors.forename: Lian-Hui
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases; C432003:N-acyl homoserine lactonase