细菌群体感应系统的研究进展

群体感应是细菌监控自身群体密度的环境信号感受系统。细菌在繁殖过程中分泌一些特定的化学信号分子，这种信号分子从胞内扩散到胞外，当这种信号分子达到一定的阈值时，细菌感受到自身的细胞密度，启动某些基因的表达，这一过程称为群体感应（quorum- sensing）。目前，已在许多革兰氏阳性菌和阴性菌中发现了群体感应系统，调控许多基因的表达。笔者综述了细菌的群体感应系统的最新进展及群体感应的作用，并阐述了其在生物技术领域的应用前景。

Research Progress in Bacteria Quorum-Sensing System

Quorum-sensing is a signal sensing system by which bacteria monitor the density of their population. Bacteria can secret the chemical signal molecules, and the signal molecules diffuse from inner cell to outer cell,bacteria can sense the density of cells and alter gene expression when the signals accumulate to a minimal threshold level, the progress is called quorum-sensing. A number of quorum sensing systems have been found in Gram-positive and in Gram-negative bacteria,which control the expression of multiple genes.This review focuses on the latest research and function of quorum sensing, and describes the prosperity of application in biotechnology.