CENSUS AND CONSENSUS IN BACTERIAL ECOSYSTEMS: The LuxR-LuxI Family of Quorum-Sensing Transcriptional Regulators

The importance of accurate demographic information is reflected in the United States Constitution, Article 1, which provides for a decennial census of this country's human population. Bacteria also conduct a census of their population and do so more frequently, more efficiently, and as far we know, with little if any of the political contentiousness caused by human demographers. Many examples have been found of particular bacterial genes,...