title: Conservation and evolutionary dynamics of the agr cell-to-cell communication system across firmicutes.
abstract: We present evidence that the agr cell-to-cell communication system is present across firmicutes, including the human pathogen Clostridium perfringens. Although we find that the agr system is evolutionarily conserved and that the general functions which it regulates are similar in different species, the individual regulated genes are not the same. This suggests that the regulatory network controlled by agr is dynamic and evolves rapidly.
authors.affiliation: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QH, United Kingdom. awuster@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wuster
authors.forename: M Madan
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Babu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D053038:Quorum Sensing; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction