Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis.
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 achieve...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4684286?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819053639165018112 |
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| author | Anna Krembel Remy Colin Victor Sourjik |
| author_facet | Anna Krembel Remy Colin Victor Sourjik |
| author_sort | Anna Krembel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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 adaptation system being principally well understood, the need for a specific number of methylation sites remains relatively unclear. Here we systematically substituted the four glutamate residues of the Tar receptor of Escherichia coli by non-methylated alanine, creating a set of 16 modified receptors with a varying number of available methylation sites and explored the effect of these substitutions on the performance of the chemotaxis system. Alanine substitutions were found to desensitize the receptors, similarly but to a lesser extent than glutamate methylation, and to affect the methylation and demethylation rates of the remaining sites in a site-specific manner. Each substitution reduces the dynamic range of chemotaxis, by one order of magnitude on average. The substitution of up to two sites could be partly compensated by the adaptation system, but the full set of methylation sites was necessary to achieve efficient logarithmic sensing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T12:38:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a26d9b0cdaaf4c7e87daea27edfaccf3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T12:38:55Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-a26d9b0cdaaf4c7e87daea27edfaccf32022-12-21T19:03:51ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-011012e014558210.1371/journal.pone.0145582Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis.Anna KrembelRemy ColinVictor SourjikBacteria 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 adaptation system being principally well understood, the need for a specific number of methylation sites remains relatively unclear. Here we systematically substituted the four glutamate residues of the Tar receptor of Escherichia coli by non-methylated alanine, creating a set of 16 modified receptors with a varying number of available methylation sites and explored the effect of these substitutions on the performance of the chemotaxis system. Alanine substitutions were found to desensitize the receptors, similarly but to a lesser extent than glutamate methylation, and to affect the methylation and demethylation rates of the remaining sites in a site-specific manner. Each substitution reduces the dynamic range of chemotaxis, by one order of magnitude on average. The substitution of up to two sites could be partly compensated by the adaptation system, but the full set of methylation sites was necessary to achieve efficient logarithmic sensing.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4684286?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Anna Krembel Remy Colin Victor Sourjik Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis. PLoS ONE |
| title | Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis. |
| title_full | Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis. |
| title_fullStr | Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis. |
| title_short | Importance of Multiple Methylation Sites in Escherichia coli Chemotaxis. |
| title_sort | importance of multiple methylation sites in escherichia coli chemotaxis |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4684286?pdf=render |
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