Fig. 4: Glutamate homeostasis is essential for biofilm development in B. subtilis.
From: A promiscuous Bcd amino acid dehydrogenase promotes biofilm development in Bacillus subtilis
a Inactivation of the major GDH (GudB) and Bcd abolishes the wrinkled morphology of biofilm colonies. Removing gudB, rocG and bcd together results in aberrant biofilm expansion. (Left) A schematic of glutamate metabolism shows that biomass production requires external glutamate and ammonium generated internally via GDH-mediated glutamate degradation. b Pellicle biofilms at the air-liquid interface lose their rugose structures in the absence of GudB and Bcd. These defects are exacerbated in the ΔgudB∆rocG∆bcd triple mutant. Chromosomal expression of bcd from the sacA locus under its native promoter provides varying degrees of complementation in different mutants.
