Figures
The flower-shaped colony formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa caused by c-di-GMP overproduction via tyrosine phosphorylation.
Exopolysaccharide is one of the major components in P. aeruginosa biofilms. Exopolysaccharide production is positively regulated by an intracellular second messenger, 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid. The flower-shaped colony is formed in the mutant lacking tyrosine phosphatase (TpbA) activity, which results in increased 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid concentrations and overproduction of exopolysaccharide. The tpbA mutant formed 147-fold more biofilms because of overproduction of exopolysaccharide triggered by the increased 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid concentration. Therefore, biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa is significantly regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation via TpbA (see Ueda and Wood, doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000483).
Image Credit: Akihiro Ueda and Thomas K. Wood, Texas A & M University
Citation: (2009) PLoS Pathogens Issue Image | Vol. 5(6) June 2009. PLoS Pathog 5(6): ev05.i06. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.ppat.v05.i06
Published: June 26, 2009
Copyright: © 2009 Ueda, Wood. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Exopolysaccharide is one of the major components in P. aeruginosa biofilms. Exopolysaccharide production is positively regulated by an intracellular second messenger, 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid. The flower-shaped colony is formed in the mutant lacking tyrosine phosphatase (TpbA) activity, which results in increased 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid concentrations and overproduction of exopolysaccharide. The tpbA mutant formed 147-fold more biofilms because of overproduction of exopolysaccharide triggered by the increased 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid concentration. Therefore, biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa is significantly regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation via TpbA (see Ueda and Wood, doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000483).
Image Credit: Akihiro Ueda and Thomas K. Wood, Texas A & M University