N-Acylhomoserine Lactone-Mediated Quorum Sensing: A Twist in the Tail and a Blow for Host Immunity

Communication through quorum sensing (QS) enables bacterial populations to coordinate their behavior. Recent work on N-acylhomoserine lactone-mediated QS has revealed that some soil bacteria exploit host-derived substrates to generate an alternative N-substituted homoserine lactone. New light has also been shed on the mechanism by which N-(3-oxo-dodecanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone modulates host inflammatory signaling pathways to promote bacterial survival.