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Biology and Genomic Analysis of Clostridium botulinum.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The ability to form botulinum neurotoxin is restricted to six phylogenetically and physiologically distinct bacteria (Clostridium botulinum Groups I-IV and some strains of C. baratii and C. butyricum). The botulinum neurotoxin is the most potent toxin known, with as little as 30-100ng potentially fatal, and is responsible for botulism, a severe neuroparalytic disease that affects humans, animals, and birds. In order to minimize the hazards presented by the botulinum neurotoxin-forming clostridia, it is necessary to extend understanding of the biology of these bacteria. Analyses of recently available genome sequences in...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - July 6, 2009 Category: Microbiology Authors: Peck MW Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Physiology of Mycobacteria.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a prototrophic, metabolically flexible bacterium that has achieved a spread in the human population that is unmatched by any other bacterial pathogen. The success of M. tuberculosis as a pathogen can be attributed to its extraordinary stealth and capacity to adapt to environmental changes throughout the course of infection. These changes include: nutrient deprivation, hypoxia, various exogenous stress conditions and, in the case of the pathogenic species, the intraphagosomal environment. Knowledge of the physiology of M. tuberculosis during this process has been limited by the slow growth ...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - July 6, 2009 Category: Microbiology Authors: Cook GM, Berney M, Gebhard S, Heinemann M, Cox RA, Danilchanka O, Niederweis M Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Cytoplasmic pH Measurement and Homeostasis in Bacteria and Archaea.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We present diverse mechanisms of pH homeostasis including cell buffering, adaptations of membrane structure, active ion transport, and metabolic consumption of acids and bases. PMID: 19573695 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - July 6, 2009 Category: Microbiology Authors: Slonczewski JL, Fujisawa M, Dopson M, Krulwich TA Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

A Predatory Patchwork: Membrane and Surface Structures of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Predatory Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus bacteria are remarkable in that they attach to, penetrate and digest other Gram-negative bacteria, living and replicating within them until all resources are exhausted, when they escape the prey ghost to invade fresh prey. Remarkable remodeling of both predator and prey cell occurs during this process to allow the Bdellovibrio to exploit the intracellular niche they have worked so hard to enter, keeping the prey "bdelloplast" intact until the end of predatory growth. If one views motile non-predatory bacteria in a light microscope, one is immediately struck by how rare it is for bac...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - October 22, 2008 Category: Microbiology Authors: Lambert C, Hobley L, Chang CY, Fenton A, Capeness M, Sockett L Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Chemostat-Based Micro-Array Analysis in Baker's Yeast.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Chemostat cultivation of micro-organisms offers unique opportunities for experimental manipulation of individual environmental parameters at a fixed, controllable specific growth rate. Chemostat cultivation was originally developed as a tool to study quantitative aspects of microbial growth and metabolism. Renewed interest in this cultivation method is stimulated by the availability of high-information-density techniques for systemic analysis of microbial cultures, which require high reproducibility and careful experimental design. Genome-wide analysis of transcript levels with DNA micro-arrays is currently the most co...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - October 22, 2008 Category: Microbiology Authors: Daran-Lapujade P, Daran JM, van Maris AJ, de Winde JH, Pronk JT Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Carbon, iron and sulfur metabolism in acidophilic micro-organisms.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Acidophilic micro-organisms are those (mostly prokaryotes) that grow optimally at pH <3 (extreme acidophiles) or at pH 3-5 (moderate acidophiles). Although once considered to comprise relatively few species of bacteria and archaea, the biodiversity of extreme acidophiles is now recognized as being extensive, both in terms of their physiologies and phylogenetic affiliations. Chemolithotrophy (the ability to use inorganic chemicals as electron donors) is widespread among extreme acidophiles, as ferrous iron and sulfur represent two major available energy sources in many natural and man-made extremely acidic environmen...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - October 22, 2008 Category: Microbiology Authors: Barrie Johnson D, Hallberg KB Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Sulfur metabolism in phototrophic sulfur bacteria.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We present here a genome-based survey of the distribution and phylogenies of genes involved in oxidation of sulfur compounds in these strains. It is evident from biochemical and genetic analyses that the dissimilatory sulfur metabolism of these organisms is very complex and incompletely understood. This metabolism is modular in the sense that individual steps in the metabolism may be performed by different enzymes in different organisms. Despite the distant evolutionary relationship between GSB and PSB, their photosynthetic nature and their dependency on oxidation of sulfur compounds resulted in similar ecological roles in...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - October 22, 2008 Category: Microbiology Authors: Frigaard NU, Dahl C Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Complex Regulatory Pathways Coordinate Cell-Cycle Progression and Development in Caulobacter crescentus.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Caulobacter crescentus has become the predominant bacterial model system to study the regulation of cell-cycle progression. Stage-specific processes such as chromosome replication and segregation, and cell division are coordinated with the development of four polar structures: the flagellum, pili, stalk, and holdfast. The production, activation, localization, and proteolysis of specific regulatory proteins at precise times during the cell cycle culminate in the ability of the cell to produce two physiologically distinct daughter cells. We examine the recent advances that have enhanced our understanding of the mechanism...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - October 22, 2008 Category: Microbiology Authors: Brown PJ, Hardy GG, Trimble MJ, Brun YV Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Metallosensors, the ups and downs of gene regulation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In fungal cells, transcriptional regulatory mechanisms play a central role in both the homeostatic regulation of the essential metals iron, copper and zinc and in the detoxification of heavy metal ions such as cadmium. Fungi detect changes in metal ion levels using unique metallo-regulatory factors whose activity is responsive to the cellular metal ion status. New studies have revealed that these factors not only regulate the expression of genes required for metal ion acquisition, storage or detoxification but also globally remodel metabolism to conserve metal ions or protect against metal toxicity. This review focuses...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - August 22, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Bird AJ Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Bacterial physiology, regulation and mutational adaptation in a chemostat environment.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The chemostat was devised over 50 years ago and rapidly adopted for studies of bacterial physiology and mutation. Despite the long history and earlier analyses, the complexity of events in continuous cultures is only now beginning to be resolved. The application of techniques for following regulatory and mutational changes and the identification of mutated genes in chemostat populations has provided new insights into bacterial behaviour. Inoculation of bacteria into a chemostat culture results in a population competing for a limiting amount of a particular resource. Any utilizable carbon source or ion can be a limiting...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - August 22, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Ferenci T Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Gaining insight into microbial physiology in the large intestine: a special role for stable isotopes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The importance of the human large intestine for nutrition, health, and disease, is becoming increasingly realized. There are numerous indications of a distinct role for the gut in such important issues as immune disorders and obesity-linked diseases. Research on this long-neglected organ, which is colonized by a myriad of bacteria, is a rapidly growing field that is currently providing fascinating new insights into the processes going on in the colon, and their relevance for the human host. This review aims to give an overview of studies dealing with the physiology of the intestinal microbiota as it functions within an...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - August 22, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: de Graaf AA, Venema K Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

The bacterial response to the chalcogen metalloids se and te.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Microbial metabolism of inorganics has been the subject of interest since the 1970s when it was recognized that bacteria are involved in the transformation of metal compounds in the environment. This area of research is generally referred to as bioinorganic chemistry or microbial biogeochemistry. Here, we overview the way the chalcogen metalloids Se and Te interact with bacteria. As a topic of considerable interest for basic and applied research, bacterial processing of tellurium and selenium oxyanions has been reviewed a few times over the past 15 years. Oddly, this is the first time these compounds have been consider...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - August 22, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Zannoni D, Borsetti F, Harrison JJ, Turner RJ Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

A circadian timing mechanism in the cyanobacteria.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Cyanobacteria such as Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1, and Synechocystis species strain PCC 6803 have an endogenous timing mechanism that can generate and maintain a 24 h (circadian) periodicity to global (whole genome) gene expression patterns. This rhythmicity extends to many other physiological functions, including chromosome compaction. These rhythmic patterns seem to reflect the periodicity of availability of the primary energy source for these photoautotrophic organisms, the Sun. Presumably, eons of environmentally derived rhythmicity--light/dark cycles--have simply been mecha...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - February 5, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Williams SB Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Respiratory transformation of nitrous oxide (N2O) to dinitrogen by Bacteria and Archaea.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We describe here the paradigm of Z-type N2OR, whose characteristics have been studied in most detail in the genera Pseudomonas and Paracoccus. Sequenced bacterial genomes now provide an invaluable additional source of information. New strains harbouring nos genes and capability of N2O utilization are being uncovered. This reveals previously unknown relationships and allows pattern recognition and predictions. The core nos genes, nosZDFYL, share a common phylogeny. Most principal taxonomic lineages follow the same biochemical and genetic pattern and share the Z-type enzyme. A modified N2OR is found in Wolinella succinogenes...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - February 5, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Zumft WG, Kroneck PM Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Structure, mechanism and physiological roles of bacterial cytochrome c peroxidases.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Cytochrome-c peroxidases (CCPs) are a widespread family of enzymes that catalyse the conversion of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to water using haem co-factors. CCPs are found in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes, but the enzymes in each group use a distinct mechanism for catalysis. Eukaryotic CCPs contain a single b-type haem co-factor. Conventional bacterial CCPs (bCCPs) are periplasmic enzymes that contain two covalently bound c-type haems. However, we have identified a sub-group of bCCPs by phylogenetic analysis that contains three haem-binding motifs. Although the structure and mechanism of several bacterial di-haem CCPs...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - February 5, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Atack JM, Kelly DJ Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Oxygen, cyanide and energy generation in the cystic fibrosis pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that belongs to the gamma-proteobacteria. This clinically challenging, opportunistic pathogen occupies a wide range of niches from an almost ubiquitous environmental presence to causing infections in a wide range of animals and plants. P. aeruginosa is the single most important pathogen of the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. It causes serious chronic infections following its colonisation of the dehydrated mucus of the CF lung, leading to it being the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in CF sufferers. The recent finding that steep O2 gradients exis...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - February 5, 2007 Category: Microbiology Authors: Williams HD, Zlosnik JE, Ryall B Tags: Adv Microb Physiol Source Type: journals

Microbial degradation of organophosphorus xenobiotics: metabolic pathways and molecular basis.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article also examines applications and future use of OP-degrading microbes and enzymes for bioremediation, treatment of OP poisoning, and as biosensors. PMID: 17091564 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2006 Category: Microbiology Authors: Karpouzas DG, Singh BK Source Type: journals

Maturation of hydrogenases.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Enzymes possessing the capacity to oxidize molecular hydrogen have developed convergently three class of enzymes leading to: [FeFe]-, [NiFe]-, and [FeS]-cluster-free hydrogenases. They differ in the composition and the structure of the active site metal centre and the sequence of the constituent structural polypeptides but they show one unifying feature, namely the existence of CN and/or CO ligands at the active site Fe. Recent developments in the analysis of the maturation of [FeFe]- and [NiFe]- hydrogenases have revealed a remarkably complex pattern of mostly novel biochemical reactions. Maturation of [FeFe]-hydrogen...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2006 Category: Microbiology Authors: Böck A, King PW, Blokesch M, Posewitz MC Source Type: journals

Surface adhesins of Staphylococcus aureus.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An important facet in the interaction between Staphylococcus aureus and its host is the ability of the bacterium to adhere to human extracellular matrix components and serum proteins. In order to colonise the host and disseminate, it uses a wide range of strategies, the molecular and genetic basis of which are multifactorial, with extensive functional overlap between adhesins. Here, we describe the current knowledge of the molecular features of the adhesive components of S. aureus, mechanisms of adhesion and the impact that these have on host-pathogen interaction. PMID: 17010697 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2006 Category: Microbiology Authors: Clarke SR, Foster SJ Source Type: journals

Physiology of Zymomonas mobilis: some unanswered questions.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The ethanol-producing bacterium Zymomonas mobilis can serve as a model organism for the study of rapid catabolism and inefficient energy conversion in bacteria. Some basic aspects of its physiology still remain poorly understood. Here, the energy-spilling pathways during uncoupled growth, the structure and function of electron transport chain, and the possible reasons for the inefficient oxidative phosphorylation are analysed. Also, the interaction between ethanol synthesis and respiration is considered. The search for mechanisms of futile transmembrane proton cycling, as well as identification of respiratory electron ...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2006 Category: Microbiology Authors: Kalnenieks U Source Type: journals

The first cell.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The First Cell arose in the previously pre-biotic world with the coming together of several entities that gave a single vesicle the unique chance to carry out three essential and quite different life processes. These were: (a) to copy informational macromolecules, (b) to carry out specific catalytic functions, and (c) to couple energy from the environment into usable chemical forms. These would foster subsequent cellular evolution and metabolism. Each of these three essential processes probably originated and was lost many times prior to The First Cell, but only when these three occurred together was life jump-started ...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2005 Category: Microbiology Authors: Koch AL, Silver S Source Type: journals

Energy metabolism and its compartmentation in Trypanosoma brucei.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
African trypanosomes are parasitic protozoa of the order of Kinetoplastida, which cause sleeping sickness and nagana. Trypanosomes are not only of scientific interest because of their clinical importance, but also because these protozoa contain several very unusual biological features, such as their special energy metabolism. The energy metabolism of Trypanosoma brucei differs significantly from that of its host, not only because it comprises distinct enzymes and metabolic pathways, but also because some of the glycolytic enzymes are localized in organelles called glycosomes. Furthermore, the energy metabolism changes ...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2005 Category: Microbiology Authors: Hellemond JJ, Bakker BM, Tielens AG Source Type: journals

Microbial dimethylsulfoxide and trimethylamine-N-oxide respiration.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Over the last two decades, the biochemistry and genetics of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) respiration has been characterised, particularly in Escherichia coli marine bacteria of the genus Shewanella and the purple phototrophic bacteria, Rhodobacter sphaeroides and R. capsulatus. All of the enzymes (or catalytic subunits) involved the final step in DMSO and TMAO respiration contain a pterin molybdenum cofactor and are members of the DMSO reductase family of molybdoenzymes. In E. coli, the dimethylsulfoxide reductase (DmsABC) can be purified from membranes as a complex, which exhibits quinol-...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2005 Category: Microbiology Authors: McCrindle SL, Kappler U, McEwan AG Source Type: journals

Function, attachment and synthesis of lipoic acid in Escherichia coli.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A series of genetic, biochemical, and physiological studies in Escherichia coli have elucidated the unusual pathway whereby lipoic acid is synthesized. Here we describe the results of these investigations as well as the functions of enzyme proteins that are modified by covalent attachment of lipoic acid and the enzymes that catalyze the modification reactions. Some aspects of the synthesis and attachment mechanisms have strong parallels in the pathways used in synthesis and attachment of biotin and these are compared and contrasted. Homologues of the lipoic acid metabolism proteins are found in all branches of life, sa...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2005 Category: Microbiology Authors: Cronan JE, Zhao X, Jiang Y Source Type: journals

How Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae build Fe/S proteins.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Owing to the versatile electronic properties of iron and sulfur, iron sulfur (Fe/S) clusters are perfectly suited for sensing changes in environmental conditions and regulating protein properties accordingly. Fe/S proteins have been recruited in a wide array of diverse biological processes, including electron transfer chains, metabolic pathways and gene regulatory circuits. Chemistry has revealed the great diversity of Fe/S clusters occurring in proteins. The question now is to understand how iron and sulfur come together to form Fe/S clusters and how these clusters are subsequently inserted into apoproteins. Iron, sul...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2005 Category: Microbiology Authors: Barras F, Loiseau L, Py B Source Type: journals

Metabolic genomics.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 16221577 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2005 Category: Microbiology Authors: Chang DE, Conway T Source Type: journals

Dissimilatory Fe(III) and Mn(IV) reduction.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dissimilatory Fe(III) and Mn(IV) reduction has an important influence on the geochemistry of modern environments, and Fe(III)-reducing microorganisms, most notably those in the Geobacteraceae family, can play an important role in the bioremediation of subsurface environments contaminated with organic or metal contaminants. Microorganisms with the capacity to conserve energy from Fe(III) and Mn(IV) reduction are phylogenetically dispersed throughout the Bacteria and Archaea. The ability to oxidize hydrogen with the reduction of Fe(III) is a highly conserved characteristic of hyperthermophilic microorganisms and one Fe(I...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2004 Category: Microbiology Authors: Lovley DR, Holmes DE, Nevin KP Source Type: journals

Bacterial Na+ - or H+ -coupled ATP synthases operating at low electrochemical potential.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In certain strictly anaerobic bacteria, the energy for growth is derived entirely from a decarboxylation reaction. A prominent example is Propionigenium modestum, which converts the free energy of the decarboxylation of (S)-methylmalonyl-CoA to propionyl-CoA (DeltaG degrees =-20.6 kJ/mol) into an electrochemical Na(+) ion gradient across the membrane. This energy source is used as a driving force for ATP synthesis by a Na(+)-translocating F(1)F(0) ATP synthase. According to bioenergetic considerations, approximately four decarboxylation events are necessary to support the synthesis of one ATP. This unique feature of us...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2004 Category: Microbiology Authors: Dimroth P, Cook GM Source Type: journals

Stress responsive bacteria: biosensors as environmental monitors.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The delicate and dynamic balance of the physiological steady state and its maintenance is well characterized by studies of bacterial stress response. Through the use of genetic analysis, numerous stress regulons, their physiological regulators and their biochemical processes have been delineated. In particular, transcriptionally activated stress regulons are subjects of study and application. These regulons include those that respond to macromolecular damage and toxicity as well as to nutrient starvation. The convenience of reporter gene fusions has allowed the creation of biosensor strains, resulting from the fusion o...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2004 Category: Microbiology Authors: Cheng Vollmer A, Van Dyk TK Source Type: journals

The role of the flavodiiron proteins in microbial nitric oxide detoxification.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The flavodiiron proteins (first named as A-type flavoproteins) constitute a large superfamily of enzymes, widespread among anaerobic and facultative anaerobic prokaryotes, from both the Archaea and Bacteria domains. Noticeably, genes encoding for homologous enzymes are also present in the genomes of some pathogenic and anaerobic amitochondriate protozoa. The fingerprint of this enzyme family is the conservation of a two-domain structural core, built by a metallo-beta-lactamase-like domain, at the N-terminal region, harbouring a non-heme diiron site, and a flavodoxin-like domain, containing one FMN moiety. These enzymes...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2004 Category: Microbiology Authors: Saraiva LM, Vicente JB, Teixeira M Source Type: journals

Glutathione, altruistic metabolite in fungi.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Glutathione (GSH; gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine), a non-protein thiol with a very low redox potential (E'0 = 240 mV for thiol-disulfide exchange), is present in high concentration up to 10 mM in yeasts and filamentous fungi. GSH is concerned with basic cellular functions as well as the maintenance of mitochondrial structure, membrane integrity, and in cell differentiation and development. GSH plays key roles in the response to several stress situations in fungi. For example, GSH is an important antioxidant molecule, which reacts non-enzymatically with a series of reactive oxygen species. In addition, the respons...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2004 Category: Microbiology Authors: Pócsi I, Prade RA, Penninckx MJ Source Type: journals

Cumulative index volumes 26-47.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors: PMID: 14753180 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2003 Category: Microbiology Source Type: journals

Microbial globins.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Globins are an ancient and diverse superfamily of proteins. The globins of microorganisms were relatively ignored for many decades after their discovery by Warburg in the 1930s and rediscovery by Keilin in the 1950s. The relatively recent focus on them has been fuelled by recognition of their structural diversity and fine-tuning to fulfill (probably) discrete functions but particularly by the finding that a major role of certain globins is in protection from the stresses caused by exposure to nitric oxide (NO)--itself a molecule that has attracted intense curiosity recently. At least three classes of microbial globin a...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2003 Category: Microbiology Authors: Wu G, Wainwright LM, Poole RK Source Type: journals

The Tat protein translocation pathway and its role in microbial physiology.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Tat (twin arginine translocation) protein transport system functions to export folded protein substrates across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane and to insert certain integral membrane proteins into that membrane. It is entirely distinct from the Sec pathway. Here, we describe our current knowledge of the molecular features of the Tat transport system. In addition, we discuss the roles that the Tat pathway plays in the bacterial cell, paying particular attention to the involvement of the Tat pathway in the biogenesis of cofactor-containing proteins, in cell wall biosynthesis and in bacterial pathogenicity. PM...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2003 Category: Microbiology Authors: Berks BC, Palmer T, Sargent F Source Type: journals

The biodiversity of microbial cytochromes P450.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The cytochrome P450 (CYP) superfamily of genes and proteins are well known for their involvement in pharmacology and toxicology, but also increasingly for their importance and diversity in microbes. The extent of diversity has only recently become apparent with the emergence of data from whole genome sequencing projects and the coming years will reveal even more information on the diversity in microbial eukaryotes. This review seeks to describe the historical development of these studies and to highlight the importance of the genes and proteins. CYPs are deeply involved in the development of strategies for deterrence a...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2003 Category: Microbiology Authors: Kelly SL, Lamb DC, Jackson CJ, Warrilow AG, Kelly DE Source Type: journals

Adoption of the transiently non-culturable state--a bacterial survival strategy?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Microbial culturability can be ephemeral. Cells are not merely either dead or alive but can adopt physiological states in which they appear to be (transiently) non-culturable under conditions in which they are known normally to be able to grow and divide. The reacquisition of culturability from such states is referred to as resuscitation. We here develop the idea that this "transient non-culturability" is a consequence of a special survival strategy, and summarise the morphological, physiological and genetic evidence underpinning such behaviour and its adaptive significance. PMID: 14560663 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2003 Category: Microbiology Authors: Mukamolova GV, Kaprelyants AS, Kell DB, Young M Source Type: journals

Physiological diversity and niche adaptation in marine Synechococcus.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
During the twenty years or so since the discovery of tiny photosynthetic cells of the genus Synechococcus in marine oceanic systems, a tremendous expansion of interest has been seen in the literature pertaining to these organisms. The fact that they are ubiquitous and abundant in major oceanic regimes underlies their ecological importance as significant contributors to marine C fixation. Recent advances in the physiology and biochemistry of these organisms are presented here, focusing on strains of the MC-A and MC-B clusters; it is stressed that the data contained herein should be put into the context of the ecological...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2003 Category: Microbiology Authors: Scanlan DJ Source Type: journals

The extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Bacterial sigma (sigma) factors are an essential component of RNA polymerase and determine promoter selectivity. The substitution of one sigma factor for another can redirect some or all of the RNA polymerase in a cell to activate the transcription of genes that would otherwise be silent. As a class, alternative sigma factors play key roles in coordinating gene transcription during various stress responses and during morphological development. The extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors are small regulatory proteins that are quite divergent in sequence relative to most other sigma factors. Many bacteria, particul...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: Helmann JD Source Type: journals

Global adjustment of microbial physiology during free radical stress.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Oxidation can damage all biological macromolecules, and the survival of a cell therefore depends on its ability to control the level of oxidants. Microbes possess an astonishing variety of antioxidant defences, ranging from small, oxidant-scavenging molecules to self-regulating, homeostatic gene networks. Most often these antioxidant defences are activated by exposure to specific classes of oxidants. Interestingly, the isolation of pleiotropic mutations that impair or exacerbate the expression of subsets of oxidant-responsive genes led to the identification of global regulators. In a few, well-characterized cases, thes...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: Pomposiello PJ, Demple B Source Type: journals

Biochemistry, regulation and genomics of haem biosynthesis in prokaryotes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Haems are involved in many cellular processes in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The biosynthetic pathway leading to haem formation is, with few exceptions, well-conserved, and is controlled in accordance with cellular function. Here, we review the biosynthesis of haem and its regulation in prokaryotes. In addition, we focus on a modification of haem for cytochrome c biogenesis, a complex process that entails both transport between cellular compartments and a specific thioether linkage between the haem moiety and the apoprotein. Finally, a whole genome analysis from 63 prokaryotes indicates intriguing exceptions to the uni...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: O'Brian MR, Thöny-Meyer L Source Type: journals

The physiology and collective recalcitrance of microbial biofilm communities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Microbial biofilms impinge upon all aspects of our lives. Whilst much of this impact is positive, there are many areas in which the presence and activities of biofilms are regarded as problematic and in need of control. It is in this respect that biofilms reveal their recalcitrance towards many of the long-established antibiotics, and industrial and medical treatment strategies. The nature of the resistance of biofilms, in spite of much research, remains an enigma. Whilst it is recognized that reaction--diffusion limitation properties of the biofilm matrix towards the majority of treatment agents will impede access, th...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: Gilbert P, Maira-Litran T, McBain AJ, Rickard AH, Whyte FW Source Type: journals

Drug resistance in yeasts--an emerging scenario.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In view of the increasing threat posed by fungal infections in immunocompromised patients and due to the non-availability of effective treatments, it has become imperative to find novel antifungals and vigorously search for new drug targets. Fungal pathogens acquire resistance to drugs (antifungals), a well-established phenomenon termed multidrug resistance (MDR), which hampers effective treatment strategies. The MDR phenomenon is spread throughout the evolutionary scale. Accordingly, a host of responsible genes have been identified in the genetically tractable budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as well as in a p...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: Prasad R, Panwar SL, Smriti Source Type: journals

How oxygen damages microbes: oxygen tolerance and obligate anaerobiosis.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The orbital structure of molecular oxygen constrains it to accept electrons one at a time, and its unfavourable univalent reduction potential ensures that it can do so only with low-potential redox partners. In E. coli, this restriction prevents oxygen from oxidizing structural molecules. Instead, it primarily oxidizes reduced flavins, a reaction that is harmful only in that it generates superoxide and hydrogen peroxide as products. These species are stronger oxidants than is oxygen itself. They can oxidize dehydratase iron-sulphur clusters and sulphydryls, respectively, and thereby inactivate enzymes that are dependen...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: Imlay JA Source Type: journals

Microarray analysis of bacterial pathogenicity.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The DNA microarray, a surface that contains an ordered arrangement of each identified open reading frame of a sequenced genome, is the engine of functional genomics. Its output, the expression profile, provides a genome wide snap-shot of the transcriptome. Refined by array-specific statistical instruments and data-mined by clustering algorithms and metabolic pathway databases, the expression profile discloses, at the transcriptional level, how the microbe adapts to new conditions of growth--the regulatory networks that govern the adaptive response and the metabolic and biosynthetic pathways that effect the new phenotyp...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2002 Category: Microbiology Authors: Schoolnik GK Source Type: journals

Nitrate reduction in the periplasm of gram-negative bacteria.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In contrast to the bacterial assimilatory and membrane-associated, respiratory nitrate reductases that have been studied for many years, it is only recently that periplasmic nitrate reductases have attracted growing interest. Recent research has shown that these soluble proteins are widely distributed, but vary greatly between species. All of those so far studied include four essential components: the periplasmic molybdoprotein, NapA, which is associated with a small, di-haem cytochrome, NapB; a putative quinol oxidase, NapC; and a possible pathway-specific chaperone, NapD. At least five other components have been foun...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2001 Category: Microbiology Authors: Potter L, Angove H, Richardson D, Cole J Source Type: journals

Flux analysis: a basic tool of microbial physiology.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Flux analysis (FA) is a means of organizing data to show flux through the central metabolic pathways (CMPs). It quantifies flux from uptake of carbon to the outputs of the CMPs, which are the precursors used for biosynthesis, acetate excretion and CO2. Fluxes to precursors reflect the commands of the genome and acetate excretion balances fluxes to precursor supply when uptake exceeds the capacity of the CMPs to allocate carbon in exactly the correct amount to each precursor. No other products have been detected in 11 phenotypes of Escherichia coli ML308. FA of each of these 11 phenotypes (with some additional variation...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2001 Category: Microbiology Authors: Holms H Source Type: journals

Quorum sensing as a population-density-dependent determinant of bacterial physiology.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The discovery that bacterial cells can communicate with each other has led to the realization that bacteria are capable of exhibiting much more complex patterns of co-operative behaviour than would be expected for simple unicellular microorganisms. Now generically termed 'quorum sensing', bacterial cell-to-cell communication enables a bacterial population to mount a unified response that is advantageous to its survival by improving access to complex nutrients or environmental niches, collective defence against other competitive microorganisms or eukaryotic host defence mechanisms and optimization of population survival...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2001 Category: Microbiology Authors: Swift S, Downie JA, Whitehead NA, Barnard AM, Salmond GP, Williams P Source Type: journals

The superfamily of chemotaxis transducers: from physiology to genomics and back.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Chemotaxis transducers are specialized receptors that microorganisms use in order to sense the environment in directing their motility to favorable niches. The Escherichia coli transducers are models for studying the sensory and signaling events at the molecular level. Extensive studies in other organisms and the arrival of genomics has resulted in the accumulation of sequences of many transducer genes, but they are not fully understood. In silico analysis provides some assistance in classification of various transducers from different species and in predicting their function. All transducers contain two structural mod...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2001 Category: Microbiology Authors: Zhulin IB Source Type: journals

Metals and the rhizobial-legume symbiosis--uptake, utilization and signalling.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We describe the ways in which genetics has shown (or not) if, and how, particular metal uptake and/or metal-mediated signalling pathways are required for the symbiotic interaction with legumes. PMID: 11450108 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2001 Category: Microbiology Authors: Johnston AW, Yeoman KH, Wexler M Source Type: journals

The regulation of pap and type 1 fimbriation in Escherichia coli.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The ability of bacterial pathogens to bind to the host mucosa is a critical step in the pathogenesis of many bacterial infections and, for Escherichia coli, a large number of different fimbrial adhesins have been implicated as virulence factors. In this chapter, our current understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that control the expression of two of the best characterized fimbrial adhesins, pyelonephritis-associated pilus (encoded by pap) and the type 1 fimbria (encoded by fim), will be described. The expression of both fimbrial adhesins is controlled by phase variation (the reversible and apparently random switchi...
Source: Advances in Microbial Physiology - January 1, 2001 Category: Microbiology Authors: Blomfield IC Source Type: journals