title: Bacterial tweets and podcasts #signaling#eavesdropping#microbialfightclub.
abstract: Once thought to live independently, bacteria are now known to be highly social organisms. Their behaviors ranges from cooperatively forming complex multispecies communities to fiercely competing for resources. Work over the past fifty years has shown that bacteria communicate through diverse mechanisms, such as exchanging diffusible molecules, exporting molecules in membrane vesicles, and interacting through direct cell-cell contact. These methods allow bacteria to sense and respond to other cells around them and coordinate group behavior. In this review, we share the discoveries and lessons learned in the field of bacterial communication with the aim of providing insights to parasitologists and other researchers working on related questions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, John Ring LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A5000, Austin, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Kelly L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Michie
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, John Ring LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A5000, Austin, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Cornforth
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, John Ring LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A5000, Austin, TX, United States. Electronic address: mwhiteley@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Marvin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Whiteley
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D053038:Quorum Sensing; D015398:Signal Transduction
keywords: Bacterial communication; Bacterial cooperation; Quorum sensing; Sociomicrobiology