Functional organization of a multimodular bacterial chemosensory apparatus. PLoS Genet 2014 Mar;10(3):e1004164
Date
03/08/2014Pubmed ID
24603697Pubmed Central ID
PMC3945109DOI
10.1371/journal.pgen.1004164Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84897463421 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 26 CitationsAbstract
Chemosensory systems (CSS) are complex regulatory pathways capable of perceiving external signals and translating them into different cellular behaviors such as motility and development. In the δ-proteobacterium Myxococcus xanthus, chemosensing allows groups of cells to orient themselves and aggregate into specialized multicellular biofilms termed fruiting bodies. M. xanthus contains eight predicted CSS and 21 chemoreceptors. In this work, we systematically deleted genes encoding components of each CSS and chemoreceptors and determined their effects on M. xanthus social behaviors. Then, to understand how the 21 chemoreceptors are distributed among the eight CSS, we examined their phylogenetic distribution, genomic organization and subcellular localization. We found that, in vivo, receptors belonging to the same phylogenetic group colocalize and interact with CSS components of the respective phylogenetic group. Finally, we identified a large chemosensory module formed by three interconnected CSS and multiple chemoreceptors and showed that complex behaviors such as cell group motility and biofilm formation require regulatory apparatus composed of multiple interconnected Che-like systems.
Author List
Moine A, Agrebi R, Espinosa L, Kirby JR, Zusman DR, Mignot T, Mauriello EMAuthor
John Kirby PhD Chair, Center Associate Director, Professor in the Microbiology and Immunology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
BiofilmsCell Movement
Chemotaxis
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Movement
Myxococcus xanthus
Phylogeny
Signal Transduction