Abstract: Several lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce peptides with antimicrobial activity usually referred to as bacteriocins. Bacteriocins are diverse in terms of structure, mode of action, antimicrobial spectrum, and potency. Both LAB and their bacteriocins are generally regarded as safe. Bacteriocins produced by LABs have demonstrated great potential as natural preservatives Intercellular communication has emerged as the key regulatory mechanism that controls the synthesis of bacteriocins via a regulatory strategy denominated quorum sensing, which allows population-wide synchronised production of antimicrobial peptides as a function of cell density. The intercellular communication phenomenon required for sensing of the cell density is mediated by secreted signaling molecules that accumulate in the environment as the cell density increase and activate signal transduction cascades, resulting in the production of bacteriocins. This review aims at describing the types of signal molecules, signal transduction mechanism and the regulation of quorum sensing in bacteriocins synthesis of LAB and understanding the regulation mechanism of quorum sensing involved in the production of two classes of bacteriocin in LAB.

Key words: quorum sensing, bacteriocin, signal molecules, lactic acid bacteria