ABSTRACT
Quorum sensing (QS) is a signaling system in the bacterial communication and coordination of activities in the population, while quorum quenching (QQ) is a strategy for preventing the QS pathway by disrupting signaling molecules. QS–QQ pathways are crucial not only in medicine but also in wastewater treatment through membrane bioreactors, food safety, environment, aquaculture, and agriculture. The QQ strategy runs by disrupting the QS signaling pathway or deactivating the QS molecules. Recent investigations on QQ have paved the way for developing strategies to mitigate biofilm-related issues in medicine, agriculture, wastewater treatment, and other biotechnological fields. The QQ strategy has gained substantial interest when there is an urgent need for an alternative or equivalent approach instead of chemicals and antibiotics. In this chapter, a general summary of the QS mechanism will be introduced, the importance of QS in biofilm formation by pathogens will be discussed, and the potential of the QQ mechanism in biofilm removal will be pointed out. Afterward, QQ applications will be mentioned in medicine, agriculture, wastewater treatment, and food safety, in which biofilm is a vital problem. Finally, the importance of QQ in biofilm removal will be emphasized.
