We discuss the mechanisms of bacterial Quorum Sensing, the biophysical phenomenon point- ing out a social behavior in bacteria, highlighting thus the very complex structure of these sys- tems. Actually, bacterial bioluminescence is an example of a quorum sensing mediated prop- erty. We show that the distribution of the activation times of the bioluminescent emission follows the universal behavior described by the Gumbel distribution of extreme value statis- tics. We provide further evidence on the system size scaling of bioluminescence, showing that the relation between cell density and total number of photons radiated by bacteria is highly non-linear.
Quorum Sensing: Complexity in the bacterial world
DELLE SIDE, DOMENICO;GIUFFREDA, ERNESTO;TREDICI, Salvatore Maurizio;TALA', ADELFIA;PENNETTA, Cecilia;ALIFANO, Pietro
2015-01-01
Abstract
We discuss the mechanisms of bacterial Quorum Sensing, the biophysical phenomenon point- ing out a social behavior in bacteria, highlighting thus the very complex structure of these sys- tems. Actually, bacterial bioluminescence is an example of a quorum sensing mediated prop- erty. We show that the distribution of the activation times of the bioluminescent emission follows the universal behavior described by the Gumbel distribution of extreme value statis- tics. We provide further evidence on the system size scaling of bioluminescence, showing that the relation between cell density and total number of photons radiated by bacteria is highly non-linear.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
