Bonnie Bassler Analysis

Bonnie Bassler claims that bacteria although simple have complex systems that they use to communicate with each other to coordinate. This is crucial to humans because Dr. Bassler considers humans to be 90-99% bacterial. Dr. Bassler states we have about one trillion human cells but we have about 10 trillion bacterial cells that either live in or on humans. The number of bacterial genes in those cells outnumber humans by 100 times since humans only have 30,000 genes. These bacteria share a mutualistic relationship with the humans. For example the bacteria that live on the skin forms a body armor. Bacteria also live in the body which digests our food and teaches the immune system which microbes are bad. However, there also bacteria that can damage they do to the host which is its virulence. Then there is also the bacteria’s ability to cause disease called pathogenicity. Bacterial relationships can be seen in other animals as well. Dr. Basslers observed a symbiosis relationship between Vibrio Fischeri and the Bobtail squid. Viberio Fisheri is bioluminescent bacteria which means it produces light. The Bobtail squid is a nocturnal animal which sleeps in the sand in shallow water in Hawaii. At night time where plentiful starlight is
present the squid opens and closes a shutter over a organ housing the bioluminescent Vibrio Fischeri. Depending on the light detectors on the back of the squid. By doing so the squid can counter illuminate itself and hunt. When the sun rises the squid pumps out the bacteria. The left over bacteria multiplies and refills the organ. The bacteria decides when to glow by using quorum sensing. Bacteria use quorum sensing which is responding to an environment depending on population density depended on the stimuli.
A protein in the bacteria releases hormone molecules which can fit in receptors of other bacteria. Once enough molecules are present in the receptors they lock in and tell the bacteria to glow. This system contributes to bacteria being multi-lingual. One system of communication is interspecies but there is also a generic system that bacteria use to talk to all bacteria. Bacteria use these system’s to decide what is the minority and majority in an environment. In humans bacteria use quorum sensing to coordinate attacks against their host increasing their virulence. Those coordinated attacks makes antibiotics
useless. Antibiotics work by either popping the bacterial membrane or they make it so that the bacteria cannot replicate effectively lowering the population density. But the bacteria that survive are essentially resistant to those antibiotics increasing the demand of antibiotics. Dr. Bassler believes alternate ways to treat bacterial infections are important because eventually antibiotics will lose their effectiveness. The manipulation of quorum sensing to treat bacterial infections can be used by creating a synthetic hormone. The synthetic and real molecules cannot by either system so they effectively block the receptors. One for interspecies system to attack disease specific bacteria and one for the generic system for more broad bacteria.