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CELL SIGNALLING

The bacterial social network and beyond

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 22, page 443 (2021)Cite this article

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Cellulose is the planet’s most abundant biological polymer, but no one could have predicted that studies of cellulose synthesis regulation in bacteria would lead to the discovery of a ubiquitous bacterial signalling molecule: cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP). This eventually changed our perception of bacteria as solitary cells and launched a thousand ships to understand garrulous ‘multicellular’ bacterial communities. It also illustrated how any group of cells might send signals to alter the microenvironment and to function cooperatively.

This story began with the search for cellulose synthases in Acetobacter xylinium. It became clear that some other enzymatic activity in bacterial membranes was required for full cellulose synthase activity. Chance findings indicated that non-hydrolysable GTP molecules weakly activated cellulose synthases. In a heroic effort, Benziman and colleagues purified the molecule that fully stimulated cellulose synthesis, and with elegant biochemical approaches inductively deduced that this molecule was made of two GMPs, connected by a 3′–5′ phosphodiester bond (c-di-GMP).

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References

Original article

  • Ross, P. H. et al. Regulation of cellulose synthesis in Acetobacter xylinum by cyclic diguanylic acid. Nature 325, 279–281 (1987)

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  1. Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), Bangalore, India

    Sunil Laxman

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  1. Sunil Laxman
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Correspondence to Sunil Laxman.

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Laxman, S. The bacterial social network and beyond. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 22, 443 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00369-3

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