ArticlePLoS biology2021
EfgA is a conserved formaldehyde sensor that leads to bacterial growth arrest in response to elevated formaldehyde.
Article in PLoS biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repair of DNA and protein damages caused by formaldehyde improves methanol assimilation.Fundamental research · 2026Article
- Adaptation ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Decreasing peptide deformylase activity is a beneficial strategy for increasing formaldehyde resistance inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Engineering phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase in Methylobacterium radiotolerans for lettuce growth and quality enhancement.Archives of microbiology · 2026Article
- Implications for methenamine hippurate use in recurrent urinary tract infection management: Formaldehyde resistance and altered urinary composition.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Review
- A blueprint for designing the next-generation of synthetic CNature communications · 2025Review
- EngineeredmSphere · 2025Article
- Methylobacterium extorquens PA1 utilizes multiple strategies to maintain formaldehyde homeostasis during methylotrophic growth.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- The identification of a novel interaction site for the human immunodeficiency virus capsid on nucleoporin 153.The Journal of general virology · 2025Article
- Seven critical challenges in synthetic one-carbon assimilation and their potential solutions.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Evolutionary engineering of methylotrophic E. coli enables fast growth on methanol.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Glycine betaine metabolism is enabled inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Microbial life in slow and stopped lanes.Trends in microbiology · 2024Review
- Impact of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides on phyllospheric Methylobacterium.BMC plant biology · 2024Article
- Comparative Genomic Analysis of aInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Defining the HIV Capsid Binding Site of Nucleoporin 153.mSphere · 2022Article
- Approaches to Formaldehyde Measurement: From Liquid Biological Samples to Cells and Organisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Unravelling Formaldehyde Metabolism in Bacteria: Road towards Synthetic Methylotrophy.Microorganisms · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Normal cellular processes give rise to toxic metabolites that cells must mitigate. Formaldehyde is a universal stressor and potent metabolic toxin that is generated in organisms from bacteria to humans. Methylotrophic bacteria such as Methylorubrum extorquens face an acute challenge due to their production of formaldehyde as an obligate central intermediate of single-carbon metabolism. Mechanisms to sense and respond to formaldehyde were speculated to exist in methylotrophs for decades but had never been discovered. Here, we identify a member of the DUF336 domain family, named efgA for enhanced formaldehyde growth, that plays an important role in endogenous formaldehyde stress response in M. extorquens PA1 and is found almost exclusively in methylotrophic taxa. Our experimental analyses reveal that EfgA is a formaldehyde sensor that rapidly arrests growth in response to elevated levels of formaldehyde. Heterologous expression of EfgA in Escherichia coli increases formaldehyde resistance, indicating that its interaction partners are widespread and conserved. EfgA represents the first example of a formaldehyde stress response system that does not involve enzymatic detoxification. Thus, EfgA comprises a unique stress response mechanism in bacteria, whereby a single protein directly senses elevated levels of a toxic intracellular metabolite and safeguards cells from potential damage.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.