{"doi":"10.1101/2022.01.11.475842","title":"A new class of protein sensor links spirochete pleomorphism, persistence, and chemotaxis","abstract":"Abstract Pathogenic spirochetes can alter their morphologies and behaviors to infect and survive within their hosts. Previous reports demonstrate that the formation of so-called ‘round bodies’ and biofilms, and chemotaxis are involved in spirochete pathogenesis. Here, in the spirochete Treponema denticola , we report a direct link between these cellular states that involves a new class of protein sensor (CheWS) with hitherto unclear function. Using cryo-EM methods, protein modeling, bioinformatics, genetics methods, and behavioral assays we demonstrate that spirochetes regulate these behaviors in response to the small molecule s-adenosylmethionine (SAM) via a SAM sensor that is anchored to chemotaxis arrays. CheWS influences chemotaxis, biofilm and round body formation under nonstressed conditions by a novel sporulation-like mechanism. Taken together, we establish an improved model for round body formation, we discovered a direct link between this SAM sensor and changes in cellular states, as well as characterized a new sensor class involved in chemotaxis.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2022,"id":302473,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9407,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":492493,"name":"Kurni Kurniyati","orcid":"0009-0006-6475-6837","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337587,"name":"Davi R. Ortega","orcid":"0000-0002-8344-2335","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":994454,"name":"F.A. Olsthoorn","orcid":"0000-0002-1877-5985","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492494,"name":"Adam Sidi Mabrouk","orcid":"0000-0002-7000-0386","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492495,"name":"Chunhao Li","orcid":"0000-0002-1872-4870","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":401780,"name":"Ariane Briegel","orcid":"0000-0003-3733-3725","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":401774,"name":"Alise R. Muok","orcid":"0000-0001-8695-3221","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:32:16.279991Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}