How Bacteria Communicate

By Queuebot in Health, Science & Tech, VideoSift on Apr 9, 2009 at 10:29 pm

[YouTube - Link]

Bonnie Bassler, professor of molecular biology at Princeton, explains how bacteria communicate with one another in this TED talk.

She begins with bioluminescence, and why it only occurs after bacteria have multiplied to a critical mass/concentration. She then extends the concept to virulence in human infections (the bacteria actually control their pathogenicity).

A related concept is that multicellular creatures (humans, etc) evolved [or were created, depending on your cosmic view] using an extension of the same principle of quorum sensing that bacteria use to distinguish "self" from "other."

She closes by explaining how the principles elucidated in this talk might be used to overcome antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

– via videosift

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

Tags: antibiotic resistance, bacteria, Bonnie Bassler, intercellular communication

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Dave
Apr 9th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Heck; everybody knows that bacteria communicate using ‘cell’ phones.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. ;o)
Christophe
Apr 9th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
LOL Dave

Another flawless TED presentation… except the skirt ;p
Geekazoid
Apr 9th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
What an amazing speaker. Incredible how she can make such a complex scientific subject easily understandable to the ordinary person.
Tanya
Apr 10th, 2009 at 9:53 am
What an awesome speech. Science rocks!
Rod
Apr 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
She’s my sister. I’m very proud of her. Amazing to see her on this website that I look at daily.
thanks,
zav
Apr 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Science FTW!
VonSkippy
Apr 10th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Like other non-intelligent creatures, I’m pretty sure they use Twitter.
Kathy
Apr 10th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I really enjoyed her talk, her research is absolutely fascinating!
just a guy
Apr 10th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Awesome!
Lilly
Apr 10th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Wow, interesting talk! The strategy regarding how virulence works is kind of creepy, though.
snarky1
Apr 11th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Duh Christophe, the skirt was topical. Notice the bacteria life-form graphics.
Meme
Apr 12th, 2009 at 11:30 am
If you find this interesting you should go check out Bruce Lipton also, he explains how dna/rna/signals works very good:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8506668136396723343
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6568107389365915765
gtstiggy
Apr 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
That was extremely interesting. However, I am not sure about the application into antibiotics. It seems more like the idea would suppress the bacteria – making the world dependent on the bacteria inhibitors long term. I can see the short term applications of slowing disease, but I don’t feel like there is a viable long term application in her presentation. I do believe it would useful and easier to use the molecules used to talk intra-species as a indicator of that species in the body. but I digress and concede that it was extremely fascinating.
Onur YALAZI
Apr 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
@gtstiggy: That’s what I thought too. I think she was talking about a “treatment” not a resolution. Also if you make bacteria grow and divide and become bigger population, race conditions for resources may start. Also depending on bacteria type, the hosted bacteria may produce biochemicals that are poisonous or harmful for the host with timely growing amounts. May be there are other biological things that modified sensing chemicals do on targets she do not talk about here.
Badjuk
Apr 15th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I wonder – when bacteria will discover wheel ?

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