The Phosphoenolpyruvate Phosphotransferase System: as Important for Biofilm Formation by Vibrio cholerae as It Is for Metabolism in Escherichia coli

Abstract

Microbial biofilms are multicellular aggregates embedded in an exopolymeric matrix that contribute to survival in environmental niches such as rock surfaces in streams, plant roots, or the middle ear or teeth in the human body. Intense research effect has gone into identifying molecular mechanisms used by bacteria to build and regulate biofilms. In an earlier issue of the Journal of Bacteriology, Houot et al. (12a) reported on the identification of three different phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system (PTS) pathways that control biofilm formation by Vibrio cholerae. This study highlights how important the PTS is in controlling biofilm formation. While other studies with different bacterial species have shown that a mutation in a gene for a component of the PTS affects biofilm formation (1, 19, 22), these studies have not yet done a thorough analysis of which components of the PTS affect biofilm formation and whether phosphorylation of these proteins is required for regulation. The PTS can transport a variety of sugars, and this report highlights the importance of studying the role of the PTS in different growth media to reveal the full extent to which the PTS affects biofilm formation. Along with the recent work demonstrating how the PTS system can influence virulence gene expression in some bacterial species (14, 24, 27), the finding that the PTS has a profound effect on biofilm formation may be bringing out a renaissance in research on this sugar transport system that was first described in the 1960s.