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Quorum sensing (QS) allows bacteria to sense the surrounding cell population density and communicate with their neighbors. They do this by producing N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs), which can diffuse back into the bacteria at high concentrations. In the cell they bind to receiver proteins, which then activate gene expression in a coordinated manner. There are many natural QS systems, but only four in popular use by synthetic biologists. Some of these systems use AHLs that can activate multiple receiver systems or "crosstalk" between networks. This can cause problems when using QS in higher-level designs. Our project aims to characterize a variety of AHL networks, which will increase the number of functional QS systems with minimal crosstalk in synthetic biology.
