Persat Alexandre, Stone Howard A, Gitai Zemer
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
Nat Commun. 2014 May 8;5:3824. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4824.
Each bacterial species has a characteristic shape, but the benefits of specific morphologies remain largely unknown. To understand potential functions for cell shape, we focused on the curved bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. Paradoxically, C. crescentus curvature is robustly maintained in the wild but straight mutants have no known disadvantage in standard laboratory conditions. Here we demonstrate that cell curvature enhances C. crescentus surface colonization in flow. Imaging the formation of microcolonies at high spatial and temporal resolution indicates that flow causes curved cells to orient such that they arc over the surface, thereby decreasing the distance between the surface and polar adhesive pili, and orienting pili to face the surface. C. crescentus thus repurposes pilus retraction, typically used for surface motility, for surface attachment. The benefit provided by curvature is eliminated at high flow intensity, raising the possibility that diversity in curvature adapts related species for life in different flow environments.
每种细菌都有其独特的形状，但特定形态的益处仍大多不为人知。为了了解细胞形状的潜在功能，我们聚焦于弯曲杆菌新月柄杆菌。矛盾的是，新月柄杆菌的弯曲在自然环境中能稳固保持，但直形突变体在标准实验室条件下并无已知的劣势。在此我们证明，细胞弯曲增强了新月柄杆菌在流动环境中的表面定殖。以高空间和时间分辨率对微菌落形成进行成像表明，流动使弯曲细胞定向，使其在表面上方呈弧形，从而缩短表面与极性黏附菌毛之间的距离，并使菌毛朝向表面。因此，新月柄杆菌将通常用于表面运动的菌毛回缩重新用于表面附着。在高流动强度下，弯曲带来的益处会消失，这增加了弯曲多样性使相关物种适应不同流动环境中生存的可能性。
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