Quorum sensing is a stimulus and response system based upon population density, observed in bacteria and social insects, to regulate behavior via gene expression. Although the models studied to date have involved signaling molecules at the biochemical level to achieve this, there may be more to quorum sensing on the energetic level as well.
A striking example of this was provided by a simple experiment performed in a university biology lab as a cooperative student study project. Candida Albicans was grown on two identical culture dishes, covered and placed side by side in a temperature-controlled chamber. Identical culture dishes were placed on top of each of the experimental dishes. One was empty and the other contained several pellets of homeopathic sulfur.
Homeopathic sulfur is a substance produced by successive dilution of the original element over and over again until there is very little, if any, of the original substance left. But it is thought that the energetic signal of the original substance remains and is enhanced by the dilution process.
The yeast grown under the culture dish containing the homeopathic sulfur had a statistically higher incidence of hyphal growth as compared to the yeast grown under the empty culture dish which was more of the budding form. Apparently, Candida Albicans had "heard" the homeopathic sulfur signal and responded accordingly. It did not like the environment where sulfur, as heralded by its energetic signal, was assumed to be present. It shifted its morphology from budding to hyphal accordingly and was preparing to seek out better environs. There was no physical contact with the homeopathic pellets.
It is nothing less than amazing that the morphic form of an active yeast culture could be influenced by non-physical contact with a substance not only in a separate culture dish but also a homeopathic remedy as well! But isn't this something that the homeopathic practitioners have been telling us all along -- that they are able to manipulate metabolic biochemical processes using diluted substances conveying messages at the energetic level?
This particular remedy, sulfur, is indicated in a wide variety of conditions. The implications here are: 1) homeopathic sulfur may be shifting the morphology of the the yeast load in vivo away from the budding yeast form which carries out the acetaldehyde-generating fermentation process, and 2) that many of the various conditions for which homeopathic sulfur are effective may be a downstream result of the production of acetaldehyde from active budding yeast. When the yeast load within an individual is induced to stop producing acetaldehyde, the prognosis improves.
This meshes seamlessly with similar results obtained from acetaldehyde scavengers such as Wondro and antifungals such as garlic where a variety of diverse disease conditions respond favorably when acetaldehyde is removed from the picture, either by scavenging or by shutting down its production.
But what does this mean for quorum sensing? It implies that Candida Albicans may be able to remotely sense its own population and activity (hyphal versus budding, for example) at various colonization locales independent of physical molecular contact between the various sites where it has entrenched itself. If there is high acetaldehyde production at one locale, for instance, then this may automatically down-regulate acetaldehyde production at other locales. In this manner Candida Albicans could self-regulate its own virulence in order to rein in its ability to dispose of its host.