Chemotaxis Signaling Systems in Spirochetes: Their Role in Directed Cell Movement and Pathogenesis
Renate Lux and Wenyuan Shi
from: Pathogenic Treponema: Molecular and Cellular Biology (Edited by: Justin D. Radolf and Sheila A. Lukehart). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2006)
Abstract
Chemotaxis enables motile bacteria including spirochetes to monitor their environment and change their motility according to the stimuli perceived. In pathogenic species, chemotaxis and motility have emerged as important virulence factors. Host invasion appears to be greatly affected when these features are missing. The general mechanism of the basic chemotaxis pathway and the proteins involved are highly conserved throughout motile bacteria and archaea. Spirochetes, such as Treponema ssp., however, appear to contain a few interesting variations in form of novel fusion proteins and specific signal co-ordination problems related to their unique morphology. In addition to the chemotaxis pathway and the role of chemotaxis in spirochete pathogenesis, with a special focus on treponemes, phylogenetic aspects of the individual chemotaxis proteins are examined read more ...
