Effect of glucose concentration on swimming motility in enterobacteria.
Since the observation that glucose prevents the synthesis of flagella in Escherichia coli was first reported in 1967, many studies have addressed the underlying mechanism. Currently, it is thought that an increase in glucose concentration decreases the intracellular CRP/cAMP concentration. This leads to an inhibitory effect on the expression of the flhD operon, the master operon for flagella synthesis. In our study on defining factors influencing the cell differentiation of Serratia marcescens, glucose catabolite repression of hag expression and swimming/swarming motility was not observed. Further experiments using a simple swimming motility assay extended this observation to other members of Enterobacteriaceae. Although the underlying mechanism is still uncharacterised, our results suggest that glucose catabolite repression of swimming motility may not be a common phenomenon in Enterobacteriaceae.
Lai
H C
HC
School and Graduate Institute of Medical Technology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Shu
J C
JC
Ang
S
S
Lai
M J
MJ
Fruta
B
B
Lin
S
S
Lu
K T
KT
Ho
S W
SW
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000187:drug effects; D009876:Operon; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; C090553:flhD protein, E coli; D005947:Glucose