The opportunistic human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii senses and responds to light.

ABSTRACT: Light is a ubiquitous environmental signal that many organisms sense and respond to by modulating their physiological responses accordingly. While this is an expected response among phototrophic microorganisms, the ability of chemotrophic prokaryotes to sense and react to light has become a puzzling and novel issue in bacterial physiology, particularly among bacterial pathogens. In this work, we show that the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii senses and responds to blue light. Motility and formation of biofilms and pellicles were observed only when bacterial cells were incubated in darkness. In contrast, the killing of Candida albicans filaments was enhanced when they were cocultured with bacteria under light. These bacterial responses depend on the expression of the A. bauman

SUBMITTER: Mussi MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3008525 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature