Chemosensory signaling systems that control bacterial survival

•Chemotaxis-like signal transduction systems regulate diverse developmental events in bacteria.•A receptor kinase core molecular machinery is modified to allow a range of different downstream signaling events.•Diverse Che-like systems facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of environmental signals for bacterial survival.

Recent studies have revealed that several Gram-negative species utilize variations of the well-known chemotaxis signaling cascade to switch lifestyles in order to survive environmental stress. The two survival strategies covered in this review are the development of dormant cyst cells and biofilm formation. Each of these structures involves exopolysaccharide-mediated cell–cell interactions, which result in multicellular communities that confer resistance to stress conditions such as desiccation and antibiotics. This review is centered on recent advances in the understanding of phosphate flow and novel output signals in chemosensory signaling pathways that are involved in cyst formation and biofilms.