title: An insect gut environment reveals the induction of a new sugar-phosphate sensor system in Bacillus cereus.
abstract: Bacteria survive under various conditions by sensing stimuli triggering specific adaptive physiological responses, which are often based on membrane-integrated sensors connected to a cytoplasmic regulator. Recent studies reveal that mucus glycans may act as signal molecules for two-component systems involved in intestinal colonization. Bacillus cereus, a human and insect opportunistic pathogen was used to identify bacterial factors expressed in an insect gut infection model. The screen revealed a promoter involved in the expression of a gene with so far unknown functions. A search for gut-related compounds, inducing its transcription, identified glucose-6-phosphate as an activation signal. The gene is part of a five-gene cluster, including a two-component system. Interestingly such five gene loci are conserved in the pathogenic Bacillus group as well as in various Clostridia bacteria and are with analogy to other multi-component sensor systems in enteropathogenic bacteria, such as E. coli. Thus our results provide insights into the function of two-component and auxiliary sensor systems in host-microbe interactions and opens up possible investigations of such systems in other gut associated bacteria.
authors.affiliation: INRA; UMR1319 Micalis-AgroParisTech; La Minière; Guyancourt, France; State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests; CAAS; Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fuping
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: INRA; UMR1319 Micalis-AgroParisTech; La Minière; Guyancourt, France; State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests; CAAS; Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: INRA; UMR408 & Université d'Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse; Avignon, France.
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brillard
authors.affiliation: INRA; UMR1319 Micalis-AgroParisTech; La Minière; Guyancourt, France.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lereclus
authors.affiliation: INRA; UMR1319 Micalis-AgroParisTech; La Minière; Guyancourt, France.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nielsen-LeRoux
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D019298:Glucose-6-Phosphate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013403:Sugar Phosphates / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D013403:Sugar Phosphates; D019298:Glucose-6-Phosphate
keywords: Bacillus cereus; Galleria mellonella; auxiliary sensor; glucose-6-phosphate; gut environment; insect; sugar phosphate uptake; two component system