Along
with Prof. Bonnie Bassler, the
2015 Life Science and Medicine Shaw Prize was
shared by
Prof. E. Peter Greenberg
, who first
coined the term “quorum sensing” and in parallel,
elucidated the mechanism and inter ference
with quorum sensing signals – the chemicals that
microorganisms use to communicate among
each other. Prior to his research, microbiologists
generally did not accept the notion of bacterial
communication and it was believed that each
bacterium behaved as an independent cell. Prof.
Greenberg is currently a professor at the University
of Washington.
In a bacterial community, individual cells
release chemicals to communicate with one
another. Detecting the concentration of specific
chemicals to determine the statuses or the number
of its fellows provides grounds for cell-to-cell co-
除
了巴斯勒教授之外，一同奪得2015年度邵逸夫生
命科學與醫學獎的還有
彼德
•
格林伯格教授
，以表揚他成功
闡述微生物通過化學物溝通的機制以及干擾效應。「群體
感應」一詞就是由格林伯格教授提出的。在此之前，微生物
學界普遍認為細菌都是獨立行事，不能互通資訊。格林伯格
現為美國華盛頓大學的教授。
在細菌群落中，個別細胞會釋放化學物和同伴溝通。與
此同時，它們也會探測特定化學物的濃度，以判斷鄰近細胞
的狀態和數量，從而做到互相協同。以綠膿桿菌群落為例，
成員就是通過「化學語言」 而協調聚集。
不過，菌落中也會有「騙子」。它們不會為群體利益作出
貢獻，卻享受集體成果。因為無須付出，這些「騙子」擁有
演化優勢。「我們研究綠膿桿菌，從而探索群體感應機制如
何限制騙子的數目，以及維持穩定的合作關係。」透過調控
特定化學物的濃度，格林伯格教授的團隊成功擾亂了細菌
operation. In a community of
Pseudomonas
aeruginosa
, individuals are able to communicate
through a “chemical language” to coordinate
aggregate motion.
However, within the bacterial community,
“cheaters” exist. These cheaters do not contribute
but benefit from the goods produced by the co-
operators, and thus possess a fitness advantage
because they do not pay the cost of contribution.
“We have used
Pseudomonas
to investigate
quorum sensing to understand ways in which
populations can control cheaters and stabilise
cooperation.” By controlling the concentration
of specific chemicals present, Prof. Greenberg
and his team have managed to disrupt the anti-
cheater mechanism. In doing this, individual
bacteria fail to recognise whether its own kind are
growing or shrinking in numbers. As a result, their
Quorum Sensing with
Prof. Bonnie Bassler
and
Prof. Peter Greenberg
