Numerous studies have shown that subinhibitory concentrations of antimicrobials can alter bacterial virulence factors. This study evaluates motility and biofilm formation by H. pylori 43504 grown in amoxicillin (AMX), clarithromycin (CLA), or tetracycline (TET). For the swimming swarming assays, suspensions were prepared with strain alone AMX, CLA, TET at ½ MIC. Next, media incubated 37 ºC, und...

Bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric GMP (c-di-GMP) is an intracellular second messenger that regulates adaptation processes, including biofilm formation, motility, and virulence in Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, we have characterized the core components of a c-di-GMP signaling pathway in the model Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Specifically, we have directly identified and characteri...

Paenibacillus polymyxa, a Gram-positive low-G+C spore-forming soil bacterium, belongs to the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. The swarming motility of P. polymyxa strain E681 was greatly induced by a secondary metabolite, citrinin, produced by Penicillium citrinum KCTC6549 in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations of 2.5-15.0 microg mL(-1) on tryptic soy agar plates containing 1.0% (w/v...

Because bacterial flagella play essential roles in various processes (motility, adhesion, host interactions, secretion), studying their expression in relation to function is an important challenge. Here, we use atomic force microscopy (AFM) to gain insight into the nanoscale surface properties of two wild-type and four mutant strains of Bacillus thuringiensis exhibiting various levels of flagel...

Myxococcus xanthus social (S) gliding motility has been previously reported by us to require the chemotaxis homologues encoded by the dif genes. In addition, two cell surface structures, type IV pili and extracellular matrix fibrils, are also critical to M. xanthus S motility. We have demonstrated here that M. xanthus dif genes are required for the biogenesis of fibrils but not for that of type...

Colonization of roots by Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6) involves root surface coverage through surface motility and biofilm formation. Root colonization and the production of antifungal phenazines are important in the ability of the bacterium to protect plants against pathogens. In this in vitro study we report that both biofilm formation and phenazine production are differentially influenc...

Swarming behaviour is a type of bacterial motility that has been found to be dependent on reaching a local density threshold of cells. With this in mind, the process through which cell-to-cell interactions develop and how an assembly of cells reaches collective motility becomes increasingly important to understand. Additionally, populations of cells and organisms have been modelled through grap...

UNLABELLED The bacterial flagellum is driven by a bidirectional rotary motor, which propels bacteria to swim through liquids or swarm over surfaces. While the functions of the major structural and regulatory components of the flagellum are known, the function of the well-conserved FliL protein is not. In Salmonella and Escherichia coli, the absence of FliL leads to a small defect in swimming bu...

In B. subtilis swarming and robust swimming motility require the positive trigger of SwrA on fla/che operon expression. Despite having an essential and specific activity, how SwrA executes this task has remained elusive thus far. We demonstrate here that SwrA acts at the main σ(A)-dependent fla/che promoter PA(fla/che) through DegU. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) reveal that SwrA ...

Proteus mirabilis alternates between motile and adherent forms. MrpJ, a transcriptional regulator previously reported to repress motility, is encoded at the 3' end of the mrp fimbrial operon in P. mirabilis. Sequencing of the P. mirabilis genome revealed 14 additional paralogues of mrpJ, 10 of which are associated with fimbrial operons. Twelve of these genes, when overexpressed, repressed motil...