Bacterial Social Networking

The threat of antibiotic resistant "superbugs" is one of the largest public health issues of our time. A research team from Carnegie Mellon University is looking at Twitter as a model to better understand how different bacterial strains interact with one another through specific chemical signals to make dense biofilms, which combat antibiotics. By studying Twitter, the C.M.U. team hopes to determine the situations where individual bacteria stop making decisions for themselves and start working together to make an all-inclusive biofilm. Understanding the complex calculations that control these networks could help predict the likelihoods for success of possible therapies that inhibit bacterial communication. Bacteria basically create a “social network” when they exchange signaling molecules (quorum sensing). To make the simulations more realistic to Twitter, researchers based their computer models on three bacterial behaviors:

1)   Creating and passing along signaling molecules that cause cells to produce substances to make biofilms. (Molecular tweets and retweets)

2)   Sending out of their own signals but not exchanging received messages so it can stockpile resources for its own growth. (No retweeting)

3)   Avoids the group effort, and makes/uses its own materials for biofilm growth. (No tweeting or retweeting)

After analyzing these models of bacterial communication and biofilm formation, the C.M.U. teams claim to have successfully discovered the fundamental intercellular communication process and community organization in biofilms. They were able to use network theory to depict quorum sensing and how it contributes to virulence factors, antibiotic resistance, and biofilm formation. These findings could lead to breakthroughs in the understanding of cellular communication in antibiotic resistance and possible solutions.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/molecular-tweeting-could-hold-the-key-to-busting-superbugs/