Characterization of Opposing Responses to Phenol by Bacillus subtilis Chemoreceptors.

Bacillus subtilis employs 10 chemoreceptors to move in response to chemicals in its environment. While the sensing mechanisms have been determined for many attractants, little is known about the sensing mechanisms for repellents. In this work, we investigated phenol chemotaxis in B.

The Unconventional Cytoplasmic Sensing Mechanism for Ethanol Chemotaxis in Bacillus subtilis.

Motile bacteria sense chemical gradients using chemoreceptors, which consist of distinct sensing and signaling domains. The general model is that the sensing domain binds the chemical and the signaling domain induces the tactic response. Here, we investigated the unconventional sensing mechanism for ethanol taxis in Ethanol and other short-chain alcohols are attractants for Two chemoreceptors, McpB and HemAT, sense these alcohols.

The Mechanism of Bidirectional pH Taxis in Bacillus subtilis.

We investigated pH taxis in This bacterium was found to perform bidirectional taxis in response to external pH gradients, enabling it to preferentially migrate to neutral environments. We next investigated the chemoreceptors involved in sensing pH gradients. We identified four chemoreceptors involved in sensing pH: McpA and TlpA for sensing acidic environments and McpB and TlpB for sensing alkaline ones.

Interactions among the three adaptation systems of Bacillus subtilis chemotaxis as revealed by an in vitro receptor-kinase assay.

The Bacillus subtilis chemotaxis pathway employs three systems for sensory adaptation: the methylation system, the CheC/CheD/CheYp system, and the CheV system. Little is known in general about how these three adaptation systems contribute to chemotaxis in B. subtilis and whether they interact with one another.