Oleskin A.V. Intercellular Interactions:
Population Structures and Intercellular Communication in Microbial Populations

Contents

Acknowledgments

I wish all my students a successful and efficient scientific career, and I hope from my heart that these lectures will be enjoyable and useful to all of them.

I wish to thank most sincerely my wife Julia for her continuous support during the course of the work on this guidebook. I gratefully acknowledge the insightful questions and comments made by my students that have helped me produce the guidebook.

Introduction

The present work is aimed at performing two main functions.

First, it is a brief guidebook on population structures and intercellular communication in microbial populations. This guidebook is mainly intended for students (bachelors and especially masters) majoring in immunology. Therefore, special attention will be paid to intercellular interactions implicated in the operation of the immune system. It is assumed that the students have already acquired sufficient knowledge concerning the mechanisms of immune responses. Even though much time will be spent on chiefly microbiological issues such as interactions among microbial cells, these issues will also be considered from the immunological viewpoint, taking into account, for instance, the response of the immune system to microbial antigens. The emphasis placed in these lectures on immunology does not imply that the lectures will be of no relevance to academic audience with a different background. It is hoped that microbiologists, neurophysiologists, ecologists, and even psychologists will also find this brief course of lectures sufficiently useful.

Second, the present book is to be considered a monograph that deals with the history and the present-day state-of-the-art of a subfield of microbiology referred to as the population organization- and communication-centered paradigm (POCCP). In this capacity, this work is focused on the main trends in research areas dealing with microbial social behavior, supracellular structures formed by microorganisms, and communication mechanisms employed by them, with special emphasis on their ongoing interaction with multicellular forms of life including, importantly, the human organism.

This work is based on a number of recent relevant publications. I specifically recommend a book co-authored by me and late Prof. Shenderov, Boris, whose eminence and extremely important contribution to microbiology, immunology, and especially nutrition science should be emphasized here. The book details are as follows: Oleskin, A. V., & Shenderov, B. A. (2020). Microbial Communication and Microbiota-Host Interactivity: Neurophysiological, Biotechnological, and Biopolitical Implications. New York: Nova Science Publishers © 2020. It is acknowledged that the present work includes some material from the Introduction and from Sections 1.1–1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.4–2.6, 3.1–3.9 of the book cited; the material is reprinted, with permission from Nova Science Publishers, in an abridged and partly modified form.

Each new course of lectures usually begins with the definition of its subject. This course deals with Population Structures and Intercellular Communication in Microbial Populations. In short, the course is about how microbial populations develop, function, and form complex structures, e.g., biofilms. This course also includes communication, i.e., information exchange among microbial cells.

Note: The present work was carried out in terms of the state assignment of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of Moscow State University titled The Future of the Planet and Global Environmental Changes.

The publication of this work was supported by the Academic Council and the Educational and Methodological Council of the Biology Faculty of Moscow State University.

Об авторе

Alexander V. Oleskin

Doctor of Science (Biology), Full Professor (Moscow State University, Faculty of biology, department of general ecology and hydrobiology). Grants and awards: Russian Science Foundation grant (2022); Russian Humanities Foundation grant (2015–2017); Certificate of recognition, Nutraceuticals conference (London, 2019); Metchnikoff Medal for outstanding achievements in biology (2009); first grade Shuvalov prize (1994). Main research fields: neurotransmitter synthesis by pro- and eukaryotic microorganisms; impact of neurotransmitters on growth variables, lipid and biogenic amine synthesis; membrane phosphorylation, and proteomics in bacteria, yeast, and microalgae; biopolitics; decentralized network structures as an important organizational pattern in biological systems and in human society.

The author has recently produced the following monographs: “Global Ecology and Sustainable Development” (M.: URSS); “Decentralized Network Organization of the Scientific Community: Prospects and Problems” (M.: URSS); “Microbial Communication and Microbiota-Host Interactions: Biomedical, Biotechnological, and Biopolitical Implications” (with B. A. Shenderov, 2020); “Network Structures in Biological Systems and in Human Society” (2014); “Biopolitics. The Political Potential of the Life Sciences” (2012).