The story of c-di-GMP
- a key regulatory molecule in bacteria
Once upon a time in the holy city of Jerusalem,
a group of scientists, led by Moshe Benziman,
were waging a war with the bacterium
Acetobacter xylinum
Acetobacter xylinum produces abundant amounts of
cellulose and Moshe and his team were interested in the
cellulose-synthesizing machinery of this bacterium.
They had broken through the bacterial envelope and were
rummaging through the membranes to identify the cellulosesynthesizing machinery.
To demonstrate that the cellulose-synthesizing
machinery was active in the isolated membranes, Moshe
needed to synthesize cellulose from these membranes.
Unfortunately, the membranes produced very small
amounts of cellulose in comparison to the amounts
produced by intact cells.
So, Moshe and his team started using heavy stuff
like PEG and GTP and the rest is history ----
Modular organization of O2-sensing phosphodiesterases and kinases
From: Chang et al (2001) Biochemistry 40:3420-3426
O2 control of cellulose synthesis in A. xylinum
From: Chang et al (2001) Biochemistry 40:3420-3426
Role of c-di-GMP in virulence
Numbers of genes encoding GGDEF, EAL, dual GGDEF and
EAL or PilZ domain proteins in different Vibrio species
c-di-GMP-mediated spatiotemporal control of protein
degradation regulates bacterial cell cycle progression