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Review
. 2015 Aug 27;11(8):e1005057.
doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005057. eCollection 2015 Aug.

Chemical Signals and Mechanosensing in Bacterial Responses to Their Environment

Akshay K Harapanahalli  1 , Jessica A Younes  1 , Elaine Allan  2 , Henny C van der Mei  1 , Henk J Busscher  1
Affiliations
Review

Chemical Signals and Mechanosensing in Bacterial Responses to Their Environment

Akshay K Harapanahalli et al. PLoS Pathog. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

This study was funded by the authors’ institution. HJB is also director of a consulting company, SASA BV. The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to authorship and/or publication of this article. Opinions and assertions contained herein are those of the authors and are not construed as necessarily representing views of their respective employers. This does not alter our adherence to all PLOS policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Bacterial cell wall deformation, mechanosensing, and the measurement of cell wall deformation using surface enhanced fluorescence.
A) Left: Intact lipid membrane at equilibrium of an undeformed bacterium, with a closed mechanosensitive channel (MSC). Right: Bacterium adhering to a substratum surface, deformed under the influence of adhesion forces arising from the substratum, yielding hydrophobic mismatch over the thickness of the membrane (water molecules adjacent to hydrophobic lipid tails), and altered lipid bilayer tension in the lipid membrane. Hydrophobic mismatch and pressure profile changes lead to the opening of MSCs. B) Left: A nonactivated stress-sensitive (SS) protein on the bacterial cell surface of an undeformed bacterium and a response regulator protein (RR) suspended freely in the cytoplasm. Right: A SS protein senses cell wall deformation due to adhesion, changes its conformation, and phosphorylates a RR protein which regulates the expression of SS-regulated genes. C) Left: Lifshitz-Van der Waals forces operate between all molecular pairs in a bacterium and a substratum, decreasing with distance between the molecules. Right: Adhering bacterium, deformed due to attractive Lifshitz-Van der Waals forces, with more molecules in the bacterium closer to the substratum, yielding stronger adhesion and more deformation. Deformation stops once the counterforces arising from the deformation of the rigid peptidoglycan layer match those of the adhesion forces. D) Left: Only a small number of fluorophores inside an undeformed bacterium are sufficiently close to a metal substratum surface to experience surface-enhanced fluorescence (brighter dots). Right: In a deformed, adhering bacterium, the volume of the bacterium close to the surface increases and the number of fluorophores subject to surface-enhanced fluorescence becomes higher. Thus, quantitative analysis of fluorescence arising from fluorescent bacteria adhering to a metal surface provides a way to determine cell wall deformation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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