Assignment II The Ted Talk with Bonnie Bassler entitled “How Bacteria ‘Talk’” is very informative concerning how bacteria area able to communicate with each other. Bassler begins her speech by giving basic introduction into bacteria. She states that the main function of bacteria is to grow and divide continuously. She comments on our relationship with bacteria, stating that we have 10 trillion bacterial cells living in or on us at any given point in time. Bassler states that the question her research team addressed was how can microscopic bacteria do anything at all given their incredibly small size? She goes on to answer this question through describing the process of quorum sensing. Bassler uses the bacteria Vibrio fischeri as an example. Vibrio fischeri live inside of a squid, and they have a symbiotic relationship…show more content… The bacteria Vibrio fischeri have the capability to produce light, but when a single bacterium was observed, it didn’t produce light; but when the bacteria were present in a certain amount, they each produced light. Bassler explained that this phenomena is due to quorum sensing. Quorum sensing is the process of bacteria producing a certain chemical, like a hormone, that allows them to communicate with other bacteria. Quorum sensing is the way bacteria communicate with one another. Quorum sensing can be both a form of intraspecies communication as well as interspecies communication. Each different species of bacteria has a chemical that is species specific that allows them to communicate with each other within their species. Each species of bacteria also has a basic chemical that allows them to perform interspecies communication with all bacterial species. This allows bacteria to get a sense of how many bacterial cells are present in a host. This communication allows bacteria to know when to turn on group behaviors that are only successful when all cells
