Faculty Collaboration Database

CheC is related to the family of flagellar switch proteins and acts independently from CheD to control chemotaxis in Bacillus subtilis. Mol Microbiol 2001 Nov;42(3):573-85

Date

11/28/2001

Pubmed ID

11722727

DOI

10.1046/j.1365-2958.2001.02581.x

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0035168279 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   53 Citations

Abstract

Chemotaxis by Bacillus subtilis requires the inter-acting chemotaxis proteins CheC and CheD. In this study, we show that CheD is absolutely required for a behavioural response to proline mediated by McpC but is not required for the response to asparagine mediated by McpB. We also show that CheC is not required for the excitation response to asparagine stimulation but is required for adaptation while asparagine remains complexed with the McpB chemoreceptor. CheC displayed an interaction with the histidine kinase CheA as well as with McpB in the yeast two-hybrid assay, suggesting that the mechanism by which CheC affects adaptation may result from an interaction with the receptor-CheA complex. Furthermore, CheC was found to be related to the family of flagellar switch proteins comprising FliM and FliY but is not present in many proteobacterial genomes in which CheD homologues exist. The distinct physiological roles for CheC and CheD during B. subtilis chemotaxis and the observation that CheD is present in bacterial genomes that lack CheC indicate that these proteins can function independently and may define unique pathways during chemotactic signal transduction. We speculate that CheC interacts with flagellar switch components and dissociates upon CheY-P binding and subsequently interacts with the receptor complex to facilitate adaptation.

Author List

Kirby JR, Kristich CJ, Saulmon MM, Zimmer MA, Garrity LF, Zhulin IB, Ordal GW

Authors

John Kirby PhD Chair, Center Associate Director, Professor in the Microbiology and Immunology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Christopher J. Kristich PhD Professor in the Microbiology and Immunology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Amino Acid Sequence
Asparagine
Bacillus subtilis
Bacterial Proteins
Chemotaxis
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutation
Proline
Sequence Alignment
Two-Hybrid System Techniques