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BIOLUMINESCENT BACTERIA |  | |||||
 | Bacterial backchat Certain luminous bacteria only start to glow once their cell density has reached a particular level. In the mid-1990s it was discovered that the microbes are actually 'telling' each other when to switch on the light. This helps to explain why such bacteria do not glow in the open sea, but readily do so when packed inside the light organs of luminous fish and squid. Quorum sensing, as this bacterial banter has been dubbed, is now thought to play a major role in the virulence of pathogens and in enzyme and antibiotic production. The findings of research in this field could therefore be of great economic and medical importance. | | ||||
The organism Photobacterium phosphoreum is well-suited to school use as it is able to thrive at room temperatures, and so does not need specialist incubation facilities. The bacterium's requirement for saline conditions means that it is unlikely to survive for long if accidentally spilt, and hence it was recommended by Her Majesty's Inspectorate during the late 1980s for elementary work. It was probably John Richardson of SSERC (the Scottish Schools' Equipment Research Centre) who ensured the the organism's popularity in the UK, however. He devised a 'Photobacterium kit' for the supplier Philip Harris, and since this firm was then schools' only practical source of cultures, it was through them that teachers usually came across the species. Later, an ill-fated schools' fermenter project funded by the UK Department of Trade and Industry also used Photobacterium - it looked particularly spectacular when air was pumped through the vessel. I remember creeping down darkened school corridors at 4 am so that I could inoculate the fermenter to ensure that it would be glowing during the lesson! I'm lucky that the school caretaker, an 'independently-minded' chap who'd left 'Rhodesia' as he liked to call it, didn't blugeon me over the head as an intruder. Unlike many of the examples on these pages, Photobacterium and its glowing relatives have increased in importance over the last decade, particularly since the discovery of quorum sensing (see panel). | ||||||
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES | ||
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A submarine? Read the protocol to find out why it's here. | |||||||||
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Copyright © National Centre for Biotechnology Education, 2006 | www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk | ||
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