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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Microorganisms can switch from a planktonic, free-swimming life-style to a sessile, colonial state, called a biofilm, which confers resistance to environmental stress. Conversion between the motile and biofilm life-styles has been attributed to increased levels of the prokaryotic second messenger cyclic di-guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP), yet the signaling mechanisms mediating such a global switch are poorly understood. Here we show that the transcriptional regulator VpsT from Vibrio cholerae directly senses c-di-GMP to inversely control extracellular matrix production and motility, which identifies VpsT as a master regulator for biofilm formation. Rather than being regulated by phosphorylation, VpsT undergoes a change in oligomerization on c-di-GMP binding.

Vibrio cholerae VpsT regulates matrix production and motility by directly sensing cyclic di-GMP.,Krasteva PV, Fong JC, Shikuma NJ, Beyhan S, Navarro MV, Yildiz FH, Sondermann H Science. 2010 Feb 12;327(5967):866-8. PMID:20150502^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.