{"id":7031,"date":"2017-06-28T17:01:33","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T17:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainableagriculturewaitrose.org\/?p=7031"},"modified":"2017-06-28T17:01:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T17:01:33","slug":"discovery-shows-soil-dwelling-bacteria-adapt-to-richer-or-poorer-conditions-in-marriage-of-convenience-with-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/2017\/06\/28\/discovery-shows-soil-dwelling-bacteria-adapt-to-richer-or-poorer-conditions-in-marriage-of-convenience-with-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery shows soil dwelling bacteria adapt to richer or poorer conditions in marriage of convenience with plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Scientists at the John Innes Centre<\/a> have identified a unique mechanism that the soil dwelling bacterium\u00a0Pseudomonas fluorescens<\/em>\u00a0uses\u00a0to effectively exploit\u00a0nutrients in the\u00a0root\u00a0environment.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough offers multiple new applications, for the study of human pathogens, for synthetic biology, and for the productions of biosensors which help detect biological changes in plants and their environment.<\/p>\n

P.\u00a0fluorescens<\/em>\u00a0is a common soil bacteria that colonises plant roots, entering into a \u201cmarriage of convenience,\u201d where it improves plant health in return for exuded nutrients from the plant.<\/p>\n

The team at the John Innes Centre,\u00a0showed how\u00a0the\u00a0\u201ctwin\u201d\u00a0transcriptional factors\u00a0HexR and RccR\u00a0can\u00a0remodel\u00a0central\u00a0carbon\u00a0metabolism\u00a0in\u00a0P. fluorescens,\u00a0<\/em>enabling the bacterium to adapt\u00a0to\u00a0its\u00a0surroundings.<\/p>\n

The paper, titled\u00a0“One ligand, two regulators and three binding sites:\u00a0how KDPG controls primary carbon metabolism in\u00a0<\/a>Pseudomonas”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0is\u00a0published in the journal PLOS Genetics<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0The study\u00a0provides a fundamental new insight into how bacteria tune their\u00a0metabolic responses to available nutrients.<\/p>\n

In particular,\u00a0the RccR protein employs\u00a0a\u00a0unique and sophisticated\u00a0two-way\u00a0switch that enables it to simultaneously suppress and activate the expression of different genes.<\/p>\n

Dr\u00a0Jacob Malone<\/a>,\u00a0a project leader at the John Innes Centre\u00a0said: \u201cThe RccR protein functions in a completely different way to conventional regulators of this type. Virtually every regulator we know of operates via an on-off switch \u2013 it either binds to DNA or it doesn\u2019t. RccR on the other hand uses an either-or switch. The\u00a0principles underpinning RccR function make it an incredible tool for\u00a0use as a biosensor, and have lots of potential for use in synthetic biology and the production of a new generation of genetic circuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study\u00a0not only\u00a0explains how\u00a0P. fluorescens<\/em>\u00a0adapts its metabolism to exploit nutrients secreted by plant roots, but\u00a0it also\u00a0suggests\u00a0medical\u00a0applications.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0report co-author Dr Rosaria Campilongo, a research assistant at the John Innes Centre,\u00a0explained\u00a0how her findings\u00a0can\u00a0be\u00a0applied to the study of the human pathogen\u00a0Pseudonomas aeruginosa<\/em>, a major factor in cystic fibrosis lung infection:\u00a0\u201cThe RccR system is shared by all\u00a0Pseudomonas<\/em>\u00a0species, including human pathogens. This means that characterising\u00a0RccR in\u00a0P<\/em>.\u00a0fluorescens<\/em>\u00a0may open\u00a0new insights into the pathogenesis and potential treatment of\u00a0P. aeruginosa<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read the paper in\u00a0PLOS Genetics:\u00a0<\/em>One ligand, tw<\/a>o regulators and three binding sites:\u00a0how KDPG controls primary carbon metabolism in\u00a0<\/a>Pseudomonas<\/em> (Open Access).<\/p>\n

Article source: John Innes Centre<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have identified a unique mechanism that the soil dwelling bacterium\u00a0Pseudomonas fluorescens\u00a0uses\u00a0to effectively exploit\u00a0nutrients in the\u00a0root\u00a0environment. The breakthrough offers multiple new applications, for the study of human pathogens, for synthetic biology, and for the productions of biosensors which help detect biological changes in plants and their environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[95,184,614,639,737,835,896,903,949,950,995,996,1066,1069,1123],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-bacteria","tag-carbon","tag-jacob-malone","tag-john-innes-centre","tag-metabolism","tag-open-access","tag-plant-science","tag-plos-genetics","tag-proteins","tag-pseudomonas-fluorescens","tag-roots","tag-rosario-campilongo","tag-soil","tag-soil-science","tag-symbiosis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}