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Methylation‐independent adaptation in chemotaxis of Escherichia coli involves acetylation‐dependent speed adaptation
Author(s) -
Baron Szilvia,
Afanzar Oshri,
Eisenbach Michael
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1002/1873-3468.12537
Subject(s) - chemotaxis , methylation , adaptation (eye) , escherichia coli , biology , acetylation , demethylation , microbiology and biotechnology , cellular adaptation , biochemistry , genetics , dna methylation , gene , gene expression , neuroscience , receptor
Chemoreceptor methylation and demethylation has been shown to be at the core of the adaptation mechanism in Escherichia coli chemotaxis. Nevertheless, mutants lacking the methylation machinery can adapt to some extent. Here we carried out an extensive quantitative analysis of chemotactic and chemokinetic methylation‐independent adaptation. We show that partial or complete adaptation of the direction of flagellar rotation and the swimming speed in the absence of the methylation machinery each occurs in a small fraction of cells. Furthermore, deletion of the main enzyme responsible for acetylation of the signaling molecule CheY prevented speed adaptation but not adaptation of the direction of rotation. These results suggest that methylation‐independent adaptation in bacterial chemotaxis involves chemokinetic adaptation, which is dependent on CheY acetylation.