Quorum sensing and biofilm formation in... : Journal of Clinical Investigation (original) (raw)

Quorum sensing and biofilm formation in Streptococcal infections

Dennis G. Cvitkovitch
Yung-Hua Li
Richard P. Ellen

Members of the bacterial genus Streptococcus are responsible for causing a wide variety of infections in humans. Many Streptococci use quorum-sensing systems to regulate several physiological properties, including the ability to incorporate foreign DNA, tolerate acid, form biofilms, and become virulent. These quorum-sensing systems are primarily made of small soluble signal peptides that are detected by neighboring cells via a histidine kinase/response regulator pair.