Disease relevance of cheZ

• We used cheZ mutants of Salmonella typhimurium, which had been isolated by Sockett et al [1].
• The transmembrane, homodimeric aspartate receptor of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium controls the chemotactic response to aspartate, an attractant, by regulating the activity of a cytoplasmic histidine kinase [2].

High impact information on cheZ

• It is controlled by changes in the phosphorylation level of the chemotactic response regulator, CheY, mediated by a histidine kinase (CheA) and a specific phosphatase (CheZ) [3].
• Unlike previously reported inverse-swimming mutants, it did not show a chemotactic response to serine, and it remained inverse even in a delta che background; thus, its switch is locked in the clockwise state [4].
• Metabolism of glycerol was required for chemotaxis, and when lactate was present to maintain energy production in the absence of glycerol, the increases in membrane potential and chemotactic response upon addition of glycerol were abolished [5].
• All 10 cheZ mutations were distinct, with several of them resulting in premature termination. cheY and cheZ suppressors in FliM occurred in clusters, which in general did not overlap [6].
• The cheZ gene is the most distal of five genes that comprise the Meche operon of the Salmonella typhimurium chemotaxis system [7].

Chemical compound and disease context of cheZ

• The chemotactic response to galactose in wild-type Salmonella typhimurium is not inducible by galactose, but is inducible by fucose, a non-metabolizable analog [8].
• The details of the chemotactic response of Salmonella typhimurium to gradients of L-serine have been examined in some detail [9].

Associations of cheZ with chemical compounds

• For strains with a severe parental mutation, such as the cheZ null mutations, adjustment of switch bias is essentially the only factor in suppression, since the attractant L-aspartate caused at most a slight further enhancement of the swarming rate over that occurring in the absence of a chemotactic stimulus [6].
• Nalidixic acid at 200 microM, which inhibits the growth but not the motility of C. johnsonae, did not interfere with its negative chemotactic response to H2O2, whereas sodium phosphate at 10 mM, which inhibits motility, did so [10].

References