Control of bacterial metabolism by quorum sensing

• Bacterial quorum sensing-dependent gene expression is dynamic.
• We propose metabolic options to manage the costs of public good biosynthesis.
• Quorum sensing acts to slow down bacterial primary metabolism.
• Bacterial quorum sensing has evolved for sustainable cooperativity.

Bacterial quorum sensing (QS)-dependent gene expression is a dynamic response to cell density. Bacteria produce costly public goods for the benefit of the population as a whole. As an example, QS rewires cellular metabolism to produce oxalate (a public good) to enable survival during the stationary phase in Burkholderia glumae, Burkholderia thailandensis, and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Recent reports showed that QS serves as a metabolic brake to maintain homeostatic primary metabolism in B. glumae and readjusts the central metabolism of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In this review, we emphasize the dynamics and complexity of the control of gene expression by QS and discuss the metabolic costs and possible metabolic options to sustain cooperativity. We then focus on how QS influences bacterial central metabolism.