Quorum sensing (QS) is a ubiquitous cell–cell communication mechanism in microbes that coordinates population‐level cell behaviors, such as biofilm production, virulence, swarming motility, and bacterial persistence. Efforts to engineer QS systems to take part in metabolic network regulation represent a promising strategy for synthetic biology and pathway engineering. Recently, design, construction, and implementation of QS circuits for programmed control of bacterial phenotypes and metabolic pathways have gained much attention, but have not been reviewed recently. In this article, the architectural organizations and genetic contributions of the naturally occurring QS components to understand the mechanisms are summarized. Then, the most recent progress in application of QS toolkits to develop synthetic networks for novel cell behaviors creation and metabolic pathway engineering is highlighted. The current challenges in large‐scale application of these QS circuits in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering fields are discussed and future perspectives for further engineering efforts are provided.

中文翻译：

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仲裁感测系统用作代谢工程中的工具。

群体感应（QS）是微生物中一种普遍存在的细胞间通讯机制，可协调群体水平的细胞行为，例如生物膜产生，毒力，成群运动和细菌持久性。设计QS系统以参与代谢网络调节的努力代表了合成生物学和途径工程学的有前途的策略。最近，用于细菌表型和代谢途径的程序控制的QS电路的设计，构建和实现已引起了广泛关注，但最近尚未得到审查。在本文中，总结了自然存在的QS组件的结构组织和遗传贡献，以了解其机理。然后，着重介绍了使用QS工具包开发用于合成新细胞行为和代谢途径工程的合成网络的最新进展。讨论了这些QS电路在合成生物学和代谢工程领域大规模应用中的当前挑战，并为进一步的工程工作提供了未来展望。