ArticlemBio2022
Bacillus subtilis Histidine Kinase KinC Activates Biofilm Formation by Controlling Heterogeneity of Single-Cell Responses.
Article in mBio, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- A metabolite morphogen coordinates multicellular development inScience advances · 2026Article
- MeeY and YybP, two proteins regulated by manganese-sensing riboswitches, are required for Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Evolutionary constraints on RNA polymerase gene positioning in the genome of fast-growing bacteria.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- An agent-based model of metabolic signaling oscillations in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Intracellular glutamine fluctuates with nitrogen availability and regulatesJournal of bacteriology · 2025Article
- Article
- Changes in Spo0A~P pulsing frequency control biofilm matrix deactivation.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Biophysical modeling reveals the transcriptional regulatory mechanism of Spo0A, the master regulator in starvingmSystems · 2025Article
- Integrated metabolomic-lipidomic profiling reveals novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for alcohol use disorder with cognitive impairment.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Notoginsenoside R1 Improved Hypoxic Pulmonary Hypertension by Inhibiting Glycolysis-Mediated Pulmonary Arterial Vascular Remodeling.Canadian respiratory journal · 2025Article
- Plasmid-encoded phosphatase RapP enhances cell growth in non-domesticated Bacillus subtilis strains.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Influence of Copper onMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Regulation of biofilm gene expression by DNA replication in Bacillus subtilis.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- A fitness trade-off between growth and survival governed by Spo0A-mediated proteome allocation constraints inScience advances · 2023Article
- Giving a signal: how protein phosphorylation helps Bacillus navigate through different life stages.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2023Review
- Biofilm Formation by Mutant Strains of Bacilli under Different Stress Conditions.Microorganisms · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In Bacillus subtilis, biofilm and sporulation pathways are both controlled by a master regulator, Spo0A, which is activated by phosphorylation via a phosphorelay-a cascade of phosphotransfer reactions commencing with autophosphorylation of histidine kinases KinA, KinB, KinC, KinD, and KinE. However, it is unclear how the kinases, despite acting via the same regulator, Spo0A, differentially regulate downstream pathways, i.e., how KinA mainly activates sporulation genes and KinC mainly activates biofilm genes. In this work, we found that KinC also downregulates sporulation genes, suggesting that KinC has a negative effect on Spo0A activity. To explain this effect, with a mathematical model of the phosphorelay, we revealed that unlike KinA, which always activates Spo0A, KinC has distinct effects on Spo0A at different growth stages: during fast growth, KinC acts as a phosphate source and activates Spo0A, whereas during slow growth, KinC becomes a phosphate sink and contributes to decreasing Spo0A activity. However, under these conditions, KinC can still increase the population-mean biofilm matrix production activity. In a population, individual cells grow at different rates, and KinC would increase the Spo0A activity in the fast-growing cells but reduce the Spo0A activity in the slow-growing cells. This mechanism reduces single-cell heterogeneity of Spo0A activity, thereby increasing the fraction of cells that activate biofilm matrix production. Thus, KinC activates biofilm formation by controlling the fraction of cells activating biofilm gene expression.
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