title: Diversity at its best: bacterial taxis.
abstract: Bacterial taxis is one of the most investigated signal transduction mechanisms. Studies of taxis have primarily used Escherichia coli and Salmonella as model organism. However, more recent studies of other bacterial species revealed a significant diversity in the chemotaxis mechanisms which are reviewed here. Differences include the genomic abundance, size and topology of chemoreceptors, the mode of signal binding, the presence of additional cytoplasmic signal transduction proteins or the motor mechanism. This diversity of chemotactic mechanisms is partly due to the diverse nature of input signals. However, the physiological reasons for the majority of differences in the taxis systems are poorly understood and its elucidation represents a major research need.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Protection, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, C/Prof. Albareda 1, Granada, Spain. tino.krell@eez.csic.es
authors.forename: Tino
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krell
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lacal
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Muñoz-Martínez
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Reyes-Darias
authors.forename: Bilge Hilal
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Cadirci
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Fontana
authors.forename: Juan Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ramos
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D002633:Chemotaxis; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface