Potential roles of quorum quenching in microbial aggregates during wastewater treatment

Abstract

Quorum sensing-regulated microbial behaviors often negatively impact wastewater treatment, leading to issues such as biofouling in membrane bioreactors, filamentous bulking, and resistance gene transfer. Quorum quenching, which counteracts quorum sensing, offers a promising strategy to mitigate these problems. This review aims to highlight overlooked perspectives for its application in microbial aggregates during wastewater treatment. First, the review examines the quorum sensing network present in microbial aggregates and the regulatory role of different quorum sensing systems in bacterial function and behavior during wastewater treatment. The discussions cover hierarchical, parallel, and competitive quorum sensing systems to clarify the interactions among these pathways. A precise quorum quenching strategy is proposed to enhance efficiency based on the type of quorum sensing regulation. Additionally, a bridge is established between the physiological characteristics of quorum quenching bacteria and process parameters to achieve process control over bacterial function and behavior during wastewater treatment.