title: A gastric pathogen moves chemotaxis in a new direction.
abstract: For almost 50 years, Escherichia coli has been the model for understanding how bacteria orient their movement in response to chemical cues, but recent studies of chemotaxis in other bacteria have revealed interesting variations from prevailing paradigms. Investigating the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori, Amieva and colleagues [mBio 2(4):e00098-11, 2011] discovered a new chemotaxis regulator, ChePep, which modulates swimming behavior through the canonical histidine-aspartate phosphorelay system. Functionally conserved among the epsilonproteobacteria, ChePep is essential for H. pylori to navigate deep into the stomach's gastric glands and may be an attractive target for novel antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Emily Goers
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Sweeney
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Guillemin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D020565:Epsilonproteobacteria / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors