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Sensory Adaptation (sensory + adaptation)
Selected AbstractsThe carboxyl-terminal linker is important for chemoreceptor functionMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Mingshan Li Summary Sensory adaptation in bacterial chemotaxis is mediated by chemoreceptor methylation and demethylation. In Escherichia coli, methyltransferase CheR and methylesterase CheB bind both substrate sites and a carboxyl-terminal pentapeptide sequence carried by certain receptors. Pentapeptide binding enhances enzyme action, an enhancement required for effective adaptation and chemotaxis. Pentapeptides are linked to the conserved body of chemoreceptors through a notably variable sequence of 30,35 residues. We created nested deletions from the distal end of this linker in chemoreceptor Tar. Chemotaxis was eliminated by deletion of 20,40 residues and reduced by shorter deletions. This did not reflect generalized disruption, because all but the most extremely truncated receptors activated kinase, were substrates for adaptational modification and performed transmembrane signalling. In contrast, linker truncations reduced rates of adaptational modification in parallel with chemotaxis. We concluded the linker is important for chemotaxis because of its role in adaptational modification. Effects of linker truncations on CheR binding to receptor-borne pentapeptide implied linker (i) makes pentapeptide available to modification enzymes by separation from the helical receptor body, and (ii) is a flexible arm allowing dual binding of enzyme to pentapeptide and modification site. The data suggest linker and the helix from which it emerges are structurally dynamic. [source] Chemotaxis in Vibrio choleraeFEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 1 2004Markus A. Boin Abstract The ability of motile bacteria to swim toward or away from specific environmental stimuli, such as nutrients, oxygen, or light provides cells with a survival advantage, especially under nutrient-limiting conditions. This behavior, called chemotaxis, is mediated by the bacteria changing direction by briefly reversing the direction of rotation of the flagellar motors. A sophisticated signal transduction system, consisting of signal transducer proteins, a histidine kinase, a response regulator, a coupling protein, and enzymes that mediate sensory adaptation, relates the input signal to the flagellar motor. Chemotaxis has been extensively studied in bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and depends on the activity of single copies of proteins in a linear pathway. However, growing evidence suggests that chemotaxis in other bacteria is more complex with many bacterial species having multiple paralogues of the various chemotaxis genes found in E. coli and, in most cases, the detailed functions of these potentially redundant genes have not been elucidated. Although the completed genome of Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, predicted a multitude of genes with homology to known chemotaxis-related genes, little is known about their relative contribution to chemotaxis or other cellular functions. Furthermore, the role of chemotaxis during the environmental or infectious phases of this organism is not yet fully understood. This review will focus on the complex relationship between chemotaxis and virulence in V. cholerae. [source] Quantitative method for pheromone delivery in studies of sensory adaptation of moth antennaePHYSIOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 4 2007R. M. TRIMBLE Abstract A pheromone sprayer and an electroantennogram (EAG) are used to study sensory adaptation in the antennae of male obliquebanded leafrollers, Choristoneura rosaceana and oriental fruit moths, Grapholita molesta, to the main pheromone compounds (Z)-11-tetradecen-1-yl acetate (Z11-14:Ac) and (Z)-8-dodecen-1-yl acetate (Z8-12:Ac), respectively. The atomization of 0.125, 0.25, 0.5 or 1 ,L ethanol min,1 into the EAG air delivery tube at an airflow rate of 2 L min,1, with resultant concentrations of 6.25, 12.5, 25 or 50 × 10,5,L ethanol mL air,1, respectively, does not affect the EAG response of C. rosaceana or C. molesta after a 30-min exposure period. The atomization of 0.125 ,L min,1 of a solution of 8 mg Z11-14:Ac mL,1 ethanol into the EAG air delivery tube at an airflow rate of 2 L min,1, with a resultant concentration of 0.5 ng pheromone mL,1 air, reduces the EAG response of C. rosaceana by approximately 70% after a 15-min exposure period. An additional 15 min of exposure to pheromone does not result in increased sensory adaptation. Antennae recover 32% of the lost responsiveness when exposed to pheromone-free air for 15 min. The atomization of 0.125 ,L min,1 of a solution of 8 mg Z8-12:Ac mL,1 ethanol into the EAG air delivery tube at an airflow rate of 2 L min,1, with a resultant concentration of 0.5 ng pheromone mL,1 air, reduces the EAG response of C. molesta antenna by approximately 80% after a 15- or 30-min exposure period. The antennae of this species do not recover responsiveness when exposed to pheromone-free air for 15 min. [source] Life, information, entropy, and time: Vehicles for semantic inheritanceCOMPLEXITY, Issue 1 2007Antony R. Crofts Abstract Attempts to understand how information content can be included in an accounting of the energy flux of the biosphere have led to the conclusion that, in information transmission, one component, the semantic content, or "the meaning of the message," adds no thermodynamic burden over and above costs arising from coding, transmission and translation. In biology, semantic content has two major roles. For all life forms, the message of the genotype encoded in DNA specifies the phenotype, and hence the organism that is tested against the real world through the mechanisms of Darwinian evolution. For human beings, communication through language and similar abstractions provides an additional supra-phenotypic vehicle for semantic inheritance, which supports the cultural heritages around which civilizations revolve. The following three postulates provide the basis for discussion of a number of themes that demonstrate some important consequences. (i) Information transmission through either pathway has thermodynamic components associated with data storage and transmission. (ii) The semantic content adds no additional thermodynamic cost. (iii) For all semantic exchange, meaning is accessible only through translation and interpretation, and has a value only in context. (1) For both pathways of semantic inheritance, translational and copying machineries are imperfect. As a consequence both pathways are subject to mutation and to evolutionary pressure by selection. Recognition of semantic content as a common component allows an understanding of the relationship between genes and memes, and a reformulation of Universal Darwinism. (2) The emergent properties of life are dependent on a processing of semantic content. The translational steps allow amplification in complexity through combinatorial possibilities in space and time. Amplification depends on the increased potential for complexity opened by 3D interaction specificity of proteins, and on the selection of useful variants by evolution. The initial interpretational steps include protein synthesis, molecular recognition, and catalytic potential that facilitate structural and functional roles. Combinatorial possibilities are extended through interactions of increasing complexity in the temporal dimension. (3) All living things show a behavior that indicates awareness of time, or chronognosis. The ,4 billion years of biological evolution have given rise to forms with increasing sophistication in sensory adaptation. This has been linked to the development of an increasing chronognostic range, and an associated increase in combinatorial complexity. (4) Development of a modern human phenotype and the ability to communicate through language, led to the development of archival storage, and invention of the basic skills, institutions and mechanisms that allowed the evolution of modern civilizations. Combinatorial amplification at the supra-phenotypical level arose from the invention of syntax, grammar, numbers, and the subsequent developments of abstraction in writing, algorithms, etc. The translational machineries of the human mind, the "mutation" of ideas therein, and the "conversations" of our social intercourse, have allowed a limited set of symbolic descriptors to evolve into an exponentially expanding semantic heritage. (5) The three postulates above open interesting epistemological questions. An understanding of topics such dualism, the élan vital, the status of hypothesis in science, memetics, the nature of consciousness, the role of semantic processing in the survival of societies, and Popper's three worlds, require recognition of an insubstantial component. By recognizing a necessary linkage between semantic content and a physical machinery, we can bring these perennial problems into the framework of a realistic philosophy. It is suggested, following Popper, that the ,4 billion years of evolution of the biosphere represents an exploration of the nature of reality at the physicochemical level, which, together with the conscious extension of this exploration through science and culture, provides a firm epistemological underpinning for such a philosophy. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2007 [source] | ||||||||||