# Quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2021 · $388,750

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Quorum sensing is a form of cell-cell communication that allows members of bacterial populations to
coordinate cooperative activities in a cell density-dependent fashion. Quorum sensing has been shown to play
a significant role in the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other pathogens, and P. aeruginosa has
become a model for studies of basic biological principles of quorum sensing, communication, and cooperation
in general. Our research on P. aeruginosa acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing is fundamental to efforts
aimed at manipulating quorum sensing during infections, in complex microbial communities, and for
biotechnological applications. We have been, and will continue to be, interested in basic mechanisms of
quorum sensing, the selective pressures favoring quorum-sensing control of gene expression, and the costs
and benefits of quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa. Quorum sensing functions to control and coordinate
cooperative behaviors. It is clear that cooperativity is an evolved biological phenomenon, but there is
considerable controversy about the selective forces allowing stable cooperativity. What are the costs and
benefits of cooperativity, and what are the possible advantages to controlling cooperativity by quorum sensing?
In the past five years we have made enormous advances in understanding at a molecular level how
cooperation is stabilized in P. aeruginosa and how we can destabilize it. These advances are important to the
field of population biology and to our understanding of the roles P. aeruginosa quorum sensing plays in certain
infections. Our continued research will use molecular genetic approaches to investigate the quorum sensing
control of gene expression, and we will continue to introduce new techniques and concepts into what has
become a vibrant field of microbiological research. Specifically we will ask questions about the determinants of
signal specificity and the potential for bacterial species to eavesdrop on each other. We will attempt to define
the determinants of signal generation and reception selectivity. We want to better understand the role of
quorum sensing during human infections with our initial emphasis on the chronic lung infections that plague
people with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis. We have recently learned that one of the least understood
components of P. aeruginosa quorum sensing circuitry, RhlR is a key quorum-sensing element in P.
aeruginosa. Our recent work has allowed us to overcome the major obstacle in learning about RhlR, an
inability to study it in vitro. The long term vision of this work is to understand how and why quorum sensing
circuits are often layered, to understand how the diversity of quorum sensing systems has evolved to its
current state, and to attain a conceptual framework to explain how communication and cooperative activities
are wired to provide stability of bacterial group activities and how we might be able to use the knowledge to
manipulate bacteri...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10133684
- **Project number:** 5R35GM136218-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Everett P Greenberg
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $388,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10133684

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10133684, Quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5R35GM136218-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10133684. Licensed CC0.

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