After a time away from the classrooms and laboratories due to the global pandemic, the return to teaching activities during the semester represented a challenge to both teachers and students. Our particular situation in a Microbial Physiology course was the necessity of imparting in shorter time, laboratory practices that usually take longer. This article describes a 2-week-long laboratory exercise that covers several concepts in an interrelated way: conjugation as a gene transfer mechanism, regulation of microbial physiology, production of secondary metabolites, degradation of macromolecules, and biofilm formation. Utilizing a Quorum Quenching (QQ) strategy, the Quorum Sensing (QS) system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is first attenuated. Then, phenotypes regulated by QS are evidenced. QS is a regulatory mechanism of microbial physiology that relies on signal molecules. QS is related in P. aeruginosa to several virulence factors, some of which are exploited in the laboratory practices presented in this work. QQ is a phenomenon by which QS is interrupted or attenuated. We utilized a QQ approach based on the enzymatic degradation of the P. aeruginosa QS signals to evidence QS-regulated traits that are relevant to our Microbial Physiology course. Results obtained with the same test performed by a random group of students before and after the activities show the positive effectiveness of the approach presented in this work.

中文翻译：

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基于群体感应和群体淬灭的多焦点实验室实验，用于获取微生物生理学概念

由于全球大流行而离开教室和实验室一段时间后，本学期重返教学活动对教师和学生来说都是一个挑战。我们在微生物生理学课程中的特殊情况是需要在更短的时间内传授通常需要更长时间的实验室实践。本文描述了为期两周的实验室练习，以相互关联的方式涵盖了几个概念：作为基因转移机制的结合、微生物生理学的调节、次级代谢产物的产生、大分子的降解和生物膜的形成。利用群体淬灭（QQ）策略，铜绿假单胞菌的群体感应（QS）系统首先被减弱。然后，QS 调节的表型得到证实。QS是一种依赖于信号分子的微生物生理调节机制。铜绿假单胞菌中的 QS 与多种毒力因子相关，其中一些毒力因子在本工作中介绍的实验室实践中得到了利用。QQ是QS中断或减弱的一种现象。我们利用基于铜绿假单胞菌QS 信号酶促降解的 QQ 方法来证明与我们的微生物生理学课程相关的 QS 调节性状。由随机一组学生在活动前后进行的相同测试获得的结果表明了本工作中提出的方法的积极有效性。