Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria navigate within inhomogeneous environments by temporally comparing concentrations of chemoeffectors over the course of a few seconds and biasing their rate of reorientations accordingly, thereby drifting towards more favorable conditions. This navigation requires a short-term memory achieved through the sequential methylations and demethylations of several specific glutamate residues on the chemotaxis receptors, which progressively adjusts the receptors' activity to track the levels of stimulation encountered by the cell with a delay. Such adaptation also tunes the receptors' sensitivity according to the background ligand concentration, enabling the cells to respond to fractional rather than absolute concentration changes, i.e. to perform logarithmic sensing. Despite the adaptatio

SUBMITTER: Krembel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4684286 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature