<i>Vibrio cholerae</i> adapts to sessile and motile lifestyles by cyclic di-GMP regulation of cell shape
Nicolas L. Fernandez, Brian Y. Hsueh, Nguyen T. Q. Nhu, Joshua Franklin, Y. Dufour, Christopher M. Waters
Abstract
Significance Form follows function is true of living organisms, including bacteria, as the shapes and morphology they adopt contribute to their biological characteristics. But whether bacteria can actively change their shape to adapt to their environment is less understood. Vibrio cholerae , the pathogenic bacterium responsible for the diarrheal disease cholera, adopts a characteristic “comma”-shaped cell morphology. Here we show that the intracellular signaling molecule, cyclic di-GMP, drives curved V. cholerae to adopt a straight cell morphology that is advantageous to a sessile biofilm lifestyle, while curved V. cholerae are better adapted for swimming. Our research provides a clear example of how bacteria can actively alter their form to impact function.