Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model microorganism for investigation of chemotactic behaviors in ecosystem

Motile bacteria sense changes in the concentration of chemicals in environments and respond in a behavioral manner. This behavioral response is called chemotaxis. Bacterial chemotaxis can be viewed as an important prelude to metabolism, prey–predator relationships, symbiosis, infections, and other ecological interactions in biological communities. Genome analysis reveals that a large number of environmental motile bacteria possess a number of genes involved in chemosensing and chemotatic signal transduction. Pseudomonas aeruginosa has a very complex chemosensory system with more than 20 chemotaxis (che) genes in five distinct clusters and 26 chemoreceptor (methyl-accepting chemotaxis protein [mcp]) genes. Among the 26 MCPs of P. aeruginosa, nine have been identified as MCPs for amino acids, inorganic phosphate, oxygen, ethylene, and volatile chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons, whereas 3 MCPs were demonstrated to be involved in biofilm formation and biosynthesis of type IV pilus. Six che genes are essential for chemotactic responses, while genes in Pil-Chp cluster and Wsp cluster are involved in type IV pilus synthesis and twitching motility and biofilm formation, respectively. P. aeruginosa, with its complex chemotaxis system, is a better model microorganism for investigating ecological aspects of chemotaxis in environmental bacteria than Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, which possess a relatively simpler chemotaxis system.