Quorum protection, growth and survival
Authors:Ian G . Macreadie
doi: 10.15698/mic2015.02.188
Volume 2, pp. 38 to 42, published 23/01/2015.
School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora; Victoria 3083, Australia.
Keywords:
cell culture, cell survival, inocula effect, quorum protection, unculturable microbes
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Ian G . Macreadie (2015). Quorum protection, growth and survival. Microbial Cell 2(2): 38-42.
© 2015 Macreadie. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
For the growth of a cell culture, one inoculates not with one cell but with a quorum of cells. This most often a requirement, not just a convenience, and most of us take this for granted without question. Here this observation is re-examined to understand why a quorum may be required to grow cells. The importance of quorums may be widespread in the aspects of microbiology they affect. It is very likely that quorums are connected with and have a large impact on the determination of Minimal Inhibitory Concentrations. It is also possible that low cell density may adversely affect cell survival, however, this is an area where even less is known. The need for a quorum might affect other aspects of microbial cell culture, cell isolation and cell preservation. Effects also extend to mammalian cell culture. Here I seek to review studies that have been documented and speculate on how the information might be utilized in the future.