Response to Environmental Signals in Biomineralization

How to cluster gene expression dynamics in response to environmental signals

Organisms usually cope with change in the environment by altering the dynamic trajectory of gene expression to adjust the complement of active proteins. The identification of particular sets of genes whose expression is adaptive in response to environmental changes helps to understand the mechanistic base of gene-environment interactions essential for organismic development. We describe a compu...

Dynamic Changes in Plant Nuclear Organization in Response to Environmental and Developmental Signals.

The Streptococcus mutans Cid and Lrg systems modulate virulence traits in response to multiple environmental signals

The tight control of autolysis by Streptococcus mutans is critical for proper virulence gene expression and biofilm formation. A pair of dicistronic operons, SMU.575/574 (lrgAB) and SMU.1701/1700 (designated cidAB), encode putative membrane proteins that share structural features with the bacteriophage-encoded holin family of proteins, which modulate host cell lysis during lytic infection. Anal...

Expression of Vibrio cholerae virulence genes in response to environmental signals.

Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of Asiatic cholera, is a gram-negative motile bacterial species acquired via oral ingestion of contaminated food or water sources. The O1 serogroup of V. cholerae is responsible for pandemic cholera and is divided into two biotypes, classical and El Tor (Butterton and Calderwood, 1995; Mekalanos, 1985). The El Tor biotype is responsible for the current chole...

Staphylococcal Bap Proteins Build Amyloid Scaffold Biofilm Matrices in Response to Environmental Signals

Biofilms are communities of bacteria that grow encased in an extracellular matrix that often contains proteins. The spatial organization and the molecular interactions between matrix scaffold proteins remain in most cases largely unknown. Here, we report that Bap protein of Staphylococcus aureus self-assembles into functional amyloid aggregates to build the biofilm matrix in response to environ...