Global Regulation of Bacteria

Adaptation and Competition: Understanding Bacterial Global Regulation

• Bacteria must adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions to survive.
• Nutrient availability is limited, and bacteria must recognize it and protect against starvation.
• Bacteria must adjust to desiccation, osmolarity, and temperature fluctuations.
• Pathogenic bacteria must adapt to host environments to survive.
• Bacteria must compete effectively with other organisms for resources.
• Different compounds may be available for use as carbon and energy sources, and bacteria must choose the most efficient one.
• Bacteria must adjust the rate of synthesis of cellular constituents quickly in response to changes in growth conditions.
• Regulatory systems that simultaneously regulate numerous operons are called global regulatory mechanisms.
• Most genes are part of some regulon, and some regulons are very large.
• Large-scale genomic analyses can be used to identify most of the genes of a regulon or stimulon.
• Only seven regulators control almost half of all the genes of Escherichia coli.
• The molecular basis of global regulation may involve a complex interaction among several cellular signals or regulators.