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Symbiosis

Sheltered bacteria lose their senses

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 10, pages 4–5 (2012)Cite this article

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PhoP-induced genes, including pmrH and the T3SS genes, are essential for the establishment and maintenance of the endosymbiotic association.

Many bacterial pathogens use the two-component regulatory system PhoPQ to sense changes in levels of Mg2+ and to modulate the expression of a range of genes, including those with products that modify the lipid A component of lipopolysaccharide, making the bacterium more resistant to antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Tsetse flies secrete a range of AMPs into their haemolymph, and it had been shown previously that S. glossinidius exhibits high levels of resistance to these AMPs. To investigate the role of PhoPQ in S. glossinidius, the authors tested the susceptibility of a phoP mutant to AMP treatment. They found that, compared with a wild-type strain, the phoP mutant was extremely sensitive to treatment with the AMPs polymyxin B and cecropin A. However, this increased sensitivity was independent of the levels of Mg2+.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Pontes, M. H. et al. Attenuation of the sensing capabilities of PhoQ in transition to obligate insect–bacterial association. PLoS Genet. 7, e1002349 (2011)Article

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FURTHER READING

  1. McCutcheon, J. P. & Moran, N. A. Extreme genome reduction in symbiotic bacteria. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 8 Nov 2011 (doi:10.1038/nrmicro2670)

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  1. Andrew Jermy
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Jermy, A. Sheltered bacteria lose their senses. Nat Rev Microbiol 10, 4–5 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2718

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