Bacillus Quorum Sensing for Enhanced Microbial Bioproduction

Bacillus quorum sensing (QS) is a central regulatory process in microbiotechnology, enabling microbial populations to coordinate biofilm formation, extracellular enzyme secretion, secondary metabolite production, stress responses, and cellular differentiation. Research in model species such as Bacillus subtilis has revealed diverse peptide-based communication circuits that connect population density with developmental and metabolic decisions. Recent studies indicate that QS can dynamically regulate gene expression, improve the timing and yield of product formation, and coordinate cooperative behaviors in microbial communities. These findings create opportunities for developing Bacillus-based cell factories, biosensors, microbial consortia, and sustainable bioprocesses. However, important challenges remain in predicting QS behavior across strains and cultivation conditions, preventing signal interference, controlling metabolic burden, and translating engineered systems from laboratory studies to reliable industrial applications. A closer integration of QS biology with microbiotechnology is therefore needed to establish robust, programmable, and scalable production platforms.This Research Topic aims to advance the mechanistic understanding, engineering, and microbiotechnological application of Bacillus QS in bioproduction. It will examine how native communication pathways can be characterized, redesigned, and integrated with metabolic networks to regulate product synthesis, resource allocation, secretion, and population-level cooperation. Key questions include how QS signals shape production phenotypes, how synthetic circuits can enhance productivity and stability, and how communication can be controlled in heterogeneous or industrial environments. The Research Topic will also consider how QS-enabled microbiotechnology can support sustainable production by reducing metabolic burden, improving process efficiency, enabling adaptive regulation, and expanding the range of valuable products generated by Bacillus-based systems.To gather further insights into the role of Bacillus QS in microbiotechnology and scalable, sustainable bioproduction, we welcome contributions spanning microbial physiology, molecular microbiology, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, microbial ecology, and industrial biotechnology, including but not limited to:• Molecular mechanisms and regulation of peptide-based QS systems in Bacillus• QS control of biofilm formation, cellular differentiation, enzyme secretion, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis• Synthetic biology and microbiotechnology approaches for designing programmable QS circuits• Metabolic rewiring and dynamic pathway regulation through QS• QS-based biosensors, reporters, and microbial monitoring platforms• Engineering Bacillus cell factories for improved yield, productivity, and robustness• Cooperative production, division of labor, and communication in microbial consortia• Microbiotechnological production of enzymes, antimicrobials, chemicals, materials, and other bio-based products• Interactions between QS, stress responses, host environments, and bioprocess conditions• Genome-scale modelling, systems biology, and data-driven analysis of Bacillus communication• Development of whole-cell technologies and living microbial platforms based on Bacillus QS• Scale-up, process control, bioreactor engineering, and industrial implementation of QS-enabled microbiotechnology• Sustainable and circular bioprocesses leveraging Bacillus communication systemsPlease note that Microbiotechnology does not consider descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (e.g., 16S rRNA) profiles or comparisons of nucleic acid extracts (e.g., metagenomics), unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied. Topic editors: Sukhminderjit Kaur, Hippolyte Tene Mouafo, Rajinder Kaur Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86060/bacillus-quorum-sensing-for-enhanced-microbial-bioproduction