Striking a balance: inter-kingdom cell-to-cell signaling, friendship or war?

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that bacterial signaling molecules are involved in cross-kingdom communication with eukaryotic cells. Bacterial signaling molecules can enter eukaryotic cells and appear to modulate immune responses to bacterial pathogens. Recently, an enticing study demonstrated that mammalian airway epithelial cells have the ability to inactivate these bacterial signaling molecules, suggesting that this activity might have a role in the host innate response against bacterial infections.