Abstract: Due to the impacts of refractory organic pollutants and environment on the water treatment system, the sewage quality can not reach the standard. It is an effective measure to improve the efficiency of wastewater treatment by introducing exogenous engineering strains with relevant functional genes and the ability of horizontal gene transfer. In sewage treatment system, there are bacteria secreting signal molecules with quorum sensing. When population density reaches induction threshold, the bacteria would activate the related genes expression (such as biofilm formation, bioluminescent, antibiotics synthesis and virulence factor expression, etc.) through releasing signaling molecules, and thus trigger the behavior of other groups. Previously, researches about quorum sensing mainly concentrated on signal transduction, microbial social behavior, and medical microbiology. In recent years, stu-dies found that quorum sensing plays an important role in wastewater biological treatment and affects the colonization of the microorganism strain and pollutants degradation. Therefore, the regulation of quorum-sensing behavior is the key factor in the bioaugmentation performance. Here, we review the signaling molecules mechanism, the release of signaling molecules and its influence factors, the colonization of microbial community and the removal of pollutants. We further discussed the research from the perspective of quorum sensing biological process. The aim was to provide new idea for the effective implementation of bioaugmentation technology and the improvement of wastewater treatment efficiency, and to provide a theoretical reference for the in-depth understanding of quorum sensing regulation behavior in the process of bioaugmentation.

Key words: quorum sensing, signal molecules, bioaugmentation, strains of colonization, wastewater treatment