Molecular Biology Commons^™

Quorum Sensing Molecules For Unicellular Organisms: Spectroscopic And Computational Study Of Conformational Behavior, Daniel Tollefson

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Quorum sensing plays a vital role in unicellular communications. Until recently, it was thought that unicellular bacteria were non-cooperative; that they did not communicate among each other as a larger community. They do, in fact, communicate via small molecules that are created and released into the extracellular environment. Detailed knowledge regarding the interactions of these quorum sensing molecules (QSM) with the molecular and cellular-scale environments can lead to the manipulation of quorum sensing within a population. The function of these molecules requires that they can readily diffuse through the polar environment of aqueous solution and the nonpolar environment of cell …