A Duo of Potassium-Responsive Histidine Kinases Govern the Multicellular Destiny of Bacillus subtilis.

ABSTRACT:

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Multicellular biofilm formation and surface motility are bacterial behaviors considered mutually exclusive. However, the basic decision to move over or stay attached to a surface is poorly understood. Here, we discover that in Bacillus subtilis, the key root biofilm-controlling transcription factor Spo0A~Pi (phosphorylated Spo0A) governs the flagellum-independent mechanism of social sliding motility. A Spo0A-deficient strain was totally unable to slide and colonize plant roots, evidencing the important role that sliding might play in natural settings. Microarray experiments plus subsequent genetic characterization showed that the machineries of sliding and biofilm formation share the same main components (i.e., surfactin, the hydrophobin BslA, exopolysaccharide, and de n

SUBMITTER: Grau RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4495169 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature