Vibrio cholerae motility is mediated by a single polar flagellum, composed of four flagellin subunits (FlaABCD) in the filament; however, only FlaA is required for motility. Class III flagellar genes, which include flaA, are controlled by the …
Background: Chemotaxis to plant compounds is frequently the initial step for the colonization of plants by bacteria. Plant pathogens and plant-associated bacteria contain approximately twice as many chemoreceptors as the bacterial average does, …
The human gut is rich in metabolites and harbors a complex microbial community, yet surprisingly little is known about the spectrum of chemical signals detected by the large variety of sensory receptors present in the gut microbiome. Here, we …
The bacterial flagellum is a complex nanomachine essential for motility, environmental sensing, and host colonization. While many of its core components have been well characterized, the relevance of proteins such as FliO, which are inconsistently …
The ability of bacteria to adapt to changing environmental conditions largely depends on transmembrane receptors that sense signal molecules and generate responses such as chemotaxis, changes in gene expression, or alterations in second-messenger …
Many bacterial receptors contain multimodular sensing domains indicative of complex sensory processes. The presence of more than one sensing module likely permits the integration of multiple signals, although the molecular detail and functional …
Two-component signal transduction systems (TCSs) are nearly ubiquitous across bacterial species and enable bacteria to sense and respond to specific cues for environmental adaptation. The Campylobacter jejuni BumSR TCS is unusual in that the BumS …
Functional divergence of transcription factors (TFs) has driven cellular and organismal complexity throughout evolution, but its mechanistic drivers remain poorly understood. Here we test for new mechanisms using CORONA (CNA) and PHABULOSA (PHB), two …
The bacterial flagellum, which facilitates motility, is composed of ~20 structural proteins organized into a long extracellular filament connected to a cytoplasmic rotor-stator complex via a periplasmic rod. Flagellum assembly is regulated by …
Purines and their derivatives control intracellular energy homeostasis and nucleotide synthesis, and act as signaling molecules. Here, we combine structural and sequence information to define a purine-binding motif that is present in sensor domains …