Signaling pathways involving second messenger c-di-GMP regulate various aspects of bacterial physiology and behavior. We describe the use of a red light-activated diguanylate cyclase (c-di-GMP synthase) and a blue light-activated c-di-GMP phosphodiesterase (hydrolase) for manipulating intracellular c-di-GMP levels in bacterial cells. We illustrate the application of these enzymes in regulating several c-di-GMP-dependent phenotypes, i.e., motility and biofilm phenotypes in E. coli and chemotactic behavior in the alphaproteobacterium Azospirillum brasilense. We expect these light-activated enzymes to be also useful in regulating c-di-GMP-dependent processes occurring at the fast timescale, for spatial control of bacterial populations, as well as for analyzing c-di-GMP-dependent phenomena at the single-cell level.
CITATION STYLE
Ryu, M. H., Fomicheva, A., O’Neal, L., Alexandre, G., & Gomelsky, M. (2017). Using light-activated enzymes for modulating intracellular c-di-GMP levels in bacteria. In Methods in Molecular Biology (Vol. 1657, pp. 169–186). Humana Press Inc. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7240-1_14
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