Illuminating Science: Quorum Sensing

Learn how bacteria communicate with each other to accomplish group behaviors.

glowing bacteria in a petri dish spell out "van Kessel lab"

Can bacteria talk?

A graduate student from the van Kessel lab at IU talks about how bacteria communicate with each other to accomplish group behaviors. This process is called quorum sensing!


Quorum Sensing Activities

screenshot of downloadable word search

Word Search

Find the words related to bacterial communication that are all scrambled up in this word search!

Crossword Puzzle

How well do you understand bacterial communication? Test your knowledge by figuring out the words that match the hints and definitions in this crossword puzzle!

Bacterial Communication Worksheet

There are many ways to study bacterial communication. Oftentimes in the lab we work with mutant strains of bacteria that have parts of the quorum sensing pathway disrupted. This worksheet demonstrates how we think about bacterial communication in the van Kessel lab! If you want to test your knowledge of quorum sensing and practice generating hypotheses of your own, then try out this worksheet!


van Kessel logo - bacterium wearing a red cape with VK on it

Extra Credit