Did bacterial sensing of host environments evolve from sensing within microbial communities?

Bacteria sense and respond to their environment, enabling adaptation to diverse niches, including multicellular eukaryotes. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Torres et al. describe how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus responds to heme as a molecular marker of the mammalian host environmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cell host & microbe 2007-04, Vol.1 (2), p.85-87
Main Authors: Miller, Samuel I, Hoffman, Lucas R, Sanowar, Sarah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria - pathogenicity
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Biological Evolution
Environment
Heme - physiology
Staphylococcus aureus - pathogenicity
Virulence
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Summary:Bacteria sense and respond to their environment, enabling adaptation to diverse niches, including multicellular eukaryotes. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Torres et al. describe how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus responds to heme as a molecular marker of the mammalian host environment. It is likely that mechanisms for sensing such markers evolved from systems that recognized cues present in microbial communities before the emergence of eukaryotes.
ISSN:1931-3128
1934-6069
DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2007.04.002