Resumo

MARCOS FLORES, Encarnación et al. The biological impact of bacterial autoinducers. Rev. Soc. Ven. Microbiol. [online]. 2011, vol.31, n.2, pp.104-111. ISSN 1315-2556.

Bacteria, in spite of being unicellular organisms, present great complexity. During a long time they were considered as asocial organisms whose main functions were feeding and reproducing. Nevertheless, it has been observed that bacteria are the microorganisms with the greatest capacity for adapting to diverse environments, also responding to multiple stimuli, both nutritional and environmental (pH, oxygen availability, osmolarity, etc.). During the last decades it has been reported that bacteria, both gram negative and gram positive, are capable of communicating among them through specialized cell-communication systems. These systems have been called “signaling systems” and the signaling molecules which unchain the various cell responses such as biofilm formation, bacterial transformation, luminescence production, antibiotic production, or virulence factor production, among others, have been called “autoinducers”. This paper presents the most relevant aspects related with gram positive and gram negative bacteria autoinducers, as well as their participation in different biological processes

Palavras-chave : autoinducer; bacterial signaling; acyl-homoserine-lactone.