Lecture: A Virulence Regulator that Responds to Neurotransmitter to Govern a PhoP/PhoQ- and SlyA-dependent Feedforward Loop in Enteric Bacteria 

Lecturer: Yixin Shi, Arizona State University

Time: 9:00am, Dec 8, 2016 

Location: Meeting Room 216 of Energy Building  

Abstract:  

Characterization of natural signaling molecules produced/present in host environment and sensed by microbes is one of the major strategies to provide great insights in communications between hosts and bacteria. Conceptual advance regarding the nature of bacterial sensors in response to these signals should elicit strong general interest throughout the diverse researchers working on molecular mechanisms of bacterial virulence and microbiota, etc, as well as host responses to bacterial infection. We characterized a signal transduction pathway in which neurotransmitter involving in important chemical exchange within the gut acts on enteric bacteria through an intracellular sensor. This signaling protein belongs to a large family proteins present in almost all bacteria, namely multiple antibiotic resistance regulators (MarR-family regulator). It functions as a global regulator to contribute to the virulence of pathogenic enteric bacteria partly by controlling a regulatory circuit dependent on two signal-responsive virulence determinants, i.e., the PhoP/PhoQ two-component system and another MarR-family member SlyA.