{"doi":"10.1101/554154","title":"Regulation of bacterial surface attachment by a network of sensory transduction proteins","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Bacteria are often attached to surfaces in natural ecosystems. A surface-associated lifestyle can have advantages, but shifts in the physiochemical state of the environment may result in conditions in which attachment has a negative fitness impact. Therefore, bacterial cells employ numerous mechanisms to control the transition from an unattached to a sessile state. The\n                  <jats:italic>Caulobacter crescentus</jats:italic>\n                  protein HfiA is a potent developmental inhibitor of the secreted polysaccharide adhesin known as the holdfast, which enables permanent attachment to surfaces. Multiple environmental cues influence expression of\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  , but mechanisms of\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  regulation remain largely undefined. Through a forward genetic selection, we have discovered a multi-gene network encoding a suite of two-component system (TCS) proteins and transcription factors that coordinately control\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  transcription and surface adhesion. The hybrid HWE-family histidine kinase, SkaH, is central among these regulators and forms heteromeric complexes with the kinases, LovK and SpdS. The response regulator SpdR indirectly inhibits\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  expression by activating two XRE-family transcription factors that directly bind the\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  promoter to repress its transcription. This study provides evidence for a model in which a consortium of environmental sensors and transcriptional regulators integrate environmental cues at the\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  promoter to control the attachment decision.\n                </jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Author summary</jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    Living on a surface within a community of cells confers a number of advantages to a bacterium. However, the transition from a free-living state to a surface-attached lifestyle should be tightly regulated to ensure that cells avoid adhering to toxic or resource-limited niches. Many bacteria build adhesive structures at their surfaces that enable attachment. We sought to discover genes that control development of the\n                    <jats:italic>Caulobacter crescentus</jats:italic>\n                    surface adhesin known as the holdfast. Our studies uncovered a network of signal transduction proteins that coordinately control the biosynthesis of the holdfast by regulating transcription of the holdfast inhibitor,\n                    <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                    . We conclude that\n                    <jats:italic>C. crescentus</jats:italic>\n                    uses a multi-component regulatory system to sense and integrate environmental information to determine whether to attach to a surface, or to remain in an unattached state.\n                  </jats:p>\n                </jats:sec>","journal":null,"year":null,"id":683726,"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":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":365978,"name":"Aretha Fiebig","orcid":"0000-0002-0612-5029","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":365979,"name":"Sean Crosson","orcid":"0000-0002-1727-322X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":818128,"name":"Leila M. Reyes Ruiz","orcid":"0000-0002-8286-7219","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Regulation of bacterial surface attachment by a network of sensory transduction proteins","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Bacteria are often attached to surfaces in natural ecosystems. A surface-associated lifestyle can have advantages, but shifts in the physiochemical state of the environment may result in conditions in which attachment has a negative fitness impact. Therefore, bacterial cells employ numerous mechanisms to control the transition from an unattached to a sessile state. The\n                  <jats:italic>Caulobacter crescentus</jats:italic>\n                  protein HfiA is a potent developmental inhibitor of the secreted polysaccharide adhesin known as the holdfast, which enables permanent attachment to surfaces. Multiple environmental cues influence expression of\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  , but mechanisms of\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  regulation remain largely undefined. Through a forward genetic selection, we have discovered a multi-gene network encoding a suite of two-component system (TCS) proteins and transcription factors that coordinately control\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  transcription and surface adhesion. The hybrid HWE-family histidine kinase, SkaH, is central among these regulators and forms heteromeric complexes with the kinases, LovK and SpdS. The response regulator SpdR indirectly inhibits\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  expression by activating two XRE-family transcription factors that directly bind the\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  promoter to repress its transcription. This study provides evidence for a model in which a consortium of environmental sensors and transcriptional regulators integrate environmental cues at the\n                  <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                  promoter to control the attachment decision.\n                </jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Author summary</jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    Living on a surface within a community of cells confers a number of advantages to a bacterium. However, the transition from a free-living state to a surface-attached lifestyle should be tightly regulated to ensure that cells avoid adhering to toxic or resource-limited niches. Many bacteria build adhesive structures at their surfaces that enable attachment. We sought to discover genes that control development of the\n                    <jats:italic>Caulobacter crescentus</jats:italic>\n                    surface adhesin known as the holdfast. Our studies uncovered a network of signal transduction proteins that coordinately control the biosynthesis of the holdfast by regulating transcription of the holdfast inhibitor,\n                    <jats:italic>hfiA</jats:italic>\n                    . We conclude that\n                    <jats:italic>C. crescentus</jats:italic>\n                    uses a multi-component regulatory system to sense and integrate environmental information to determine whether to attach to a surface, or to remain in an unattached state.\n                  </jats:p>\n                </jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"21097893","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2952142965","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"3R25GM066522-18S1","title":"The University of Chicago PREP"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5R25GM066522-05","title":"THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PREP"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5R01GM087353-03","title":"Integrated control of Caulobacter cell physiology by visible light and stress"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5T32GM007183-43","title":"Molecular and Cellular Biology Training"}],"total_grants":4,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[],"oa_status":"green","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/02/18/554154.full.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/02/18/554154.full.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1101/554154","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1101/554154","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008022","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.6082/hnnmq-f0y75","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.6082/by9wm-be427","host_type":""},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31075103","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008022","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/a1209f3912694a958815345c6bf01e7d","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1101/554154","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008022","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/554154","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008022","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing","Microbial Metabolism and Applications","Biochemical and Structural Characterization","0301 basic medicine","0303 health sciences","03 medical and health sciences"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Cell biology","Biology","Response regulator","Caulobacter crescentus","Transcription factor","Histidine kinase","Regulator","Transcription (linguistics)","Transcriptional regulation","Bacteria","Genetics","Gene","Bacterial protein","Transcription, Genetic","Polysaccharides, Bacterial","Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial","QH426-470","Environment","Bacterial Adhesion","Gene Regulatory Networks","Gene-Environment Interaction","Adhesins, Bacterial","Promoter Regions, Genetic","Ecosystem","Research Article","Protein Binding","Signal Transduction","Transcription Factors"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life in Land"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-18T11:59:41.082804Z","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":[]}