Apr 03, 2026
3 min read
CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) researchers José R. Penadés and Nuria Quiles participated in a study published today in the journal Cell, in collaboration with the Valencia Biomedical Institute (IBV-CSIC) and Imperial College London, on the communication between different viruses.
Researchers from CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) José R. Penadés and Nuria Quiles participate in the study published today in Cell together with the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV-CSIC) and Imperial College London.
Bacteriophages, or bacteria that infect bacteria, can communicate with different bacteria through the arbitrium, a concept that has so far been considered limited to similar bacteria.This was found in a study conducted by researchers from the University of Cardenal Herrera CEU (CEU UCH), with the Biomedical Institute of Valencia (IBV-CSIC) and Imperial College London, which was recently published in the journal Cell.The professor is at CEU UCH and Imperial College London, José R. Penadés, and the professor and principal researcher of the MoBiLab group at CEU UCH, Nuria Quiles, who are part of the research team.
The discovery shows that these viruses, bacteriophages, can respond to external signals and coordinate their behavior during bacterial infections.This mechanism, which affects the decision to destroy bacteria or remain hidden, is crucial in understanding the evolution of viruses and their impact on bacterial communities.
According to the authors of the study, this communication system, known as arbitrium, allows bacteria to change genetic signals to decide how to attack the bacteria.These signals accumulate in the environment and help bacteria adjust their behavior based on past infection history.Until now, this communication has been thought to be very specific, and each virus responds to signals that are unique to the virus itself.
A new study changes that view
The results of this new work, published in Cell, IBV-CSIC, Imperial College London and CEU UCH, show that some viruses can recognize and respond to signals produced by other different viruses.This phenomenon is called crosstalk.In some cases, this interaction can even occur between viruses associated with different bacteria.
Professor Alberto Marina, researcher at the Valencia Institute of Biomedicine (IBV-CSIC), highlights: “We know that viruses could communicate, but we thought it was a closed and very specific system.
To test this phenomenon, the team devised an experiment in which they presented different viruses with chemical signals that were not theirs.The results show that, in some cases, these external signs can be identified and change the behavior of the virus.These results were later confirmed in live viruses and in mixed communities, where it was found that this relationship affects collective decisions during epidemics.In addition, the researchers studied how this recognition occurs at the molecular level and found that small differences in signals can allow or prevent one virus from responding to another signal.
Identify 'language' virus
According to Professor José R. Penadés, from Imperial College London and CEU Cardenal Herrera University, "this discovery changes our understanding of organisms. They are not entities that act in isolation, but can communicate and change their behavior according to the signals in their environment."This discovery expands the understanding of how diseases interact in nature.Far from acting independently, bacteria can interact with each other through chemical expression, introducing a new level of cooperation in microbial communities.
Understanding the "language" of the disease also opens new possibilities for intervention in the body.The control of these signals can make it possible to control the behavior of the virus, for example, choose a latent state or limit the damage of the virus in specific contexts.
Discovering social behavior among viruses that infect bacteria, phages opens the door to an area of research with implications for new treatments to combat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.
New strategies against pathogenic bacteria
Furthermore, this information may facilitate the development of new strategies to control pathogenic bacteria or to regulate microbiomes in clinical, industrial or environmental settings. Taken together, the study shows that bacterial communication is more flexible and extensive than previously thought, and plays a key role in the organization and evolution of microbial ecosystems.
This work was funded by a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), where the participating researchers are part of a key team project to elucidate the mechanisms of communication between viruses.
Article citations: Francisca Gallego-del-Sol, Daniel Sin, Cora Chmielowska, Javier Manceño-Bonillo, Yuyi Li, Sara Zamora-Caballero, Nuria Quiles-Puchalt, Jose R Penades, and Alberto Marina.Levels of communication between species to form ecosystems.Cell.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.03.004
