title: Lessons in Fundamental Mechanisms and Diverse Adaptations from the 2015 Bacterial Locomotion and Signal Transduction Meeting.
abstract: In response to rapid changes in their environment, bacteria control a number of processes, including motility, cell division, biofilm formation, and virulence. Research presented in January 2015 at the biennial Bacterial Locomotion and Signal Transduction (BLAST) meeting in Tucson, AZ, illustrates the elegant complexity of the nanoarrays, nanomachines, and networks of interacting proteins that mediate such processes. Studies employing an array of biophysical, genetic, cell biology, and mathematical methods are providing an increasingly detailed understanding of the mechanisms of these systems within well-studied bacteria. Furthermore, comparisons of these processes in diverse bacterial species are providing insight into novel regulatory and functional mechanisms. This review summarizes research presented at the BLAST meeting on these fundamental mechanisms and diverse adaptations, including findings of importance for applications involving bacteria of medical or agricultural relevance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Microbiological Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
authors.forename: Birgit M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Prüβ
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Penelope I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Higgs
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Program in Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA thompson@chem.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Lynmarie K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D009068:Movement; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*