Abstract
Chemotaxis is an adaptive mechanism that shapes the behavior of motile bacteria in habitats characterized by fluctuating and often conflicting cues environmental (e.g. stay-or-go). Chemotactic responses are orchestrated by phosphorylation of CheY, which triggers rotational switching of the flagella. In Escherichia coli and similar taxa, CheZ is the principal CheY-P phosphatase, whereas in lineages lacking CheZ, members of the structurally distinct CheC-FliY-CheX family fulfill this role. Intriguingly, some bacteria code for CheX and CheZ, presenting a conundrum regarding their function, and the role of CheX in CheZ-containing organisms is unknown. We imposed a sustained motility constraint under conditions of looming nutrient depletion in Vibrio vulnificus, which possesses both CheX and CheZ, using the c-di-GMP effector PlzD that robustly curtails swimming motility. Our analyses revealed that the activity of CheX, but not CheZ, could be attenuated to mitigate the imposed constraint, assigning CheX a pivotal function in fine-tuning foraging behavior during a “stay-or-go” decision. V. vulnificus CheX maintained CheY-P phosphatase activity despite its conserved dimeric fold structure exhibiting divergence in active-site architecture, suggesting a preserved catalytic mechanism among distantly related homologs. Co-conservation of cheX and cheZ across disparate bacterial phyla suggests their adaptative retention confers robustness and versatility to chemotactic control.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded in part by funding from Indiana University FRSP-Seed Program and the Johnson Center for Innovation and Translational Research to D.R.M., the IUB-Colonel Bayard Franklin Floyd Memorial Fund in Microbiology to S.M., and HHS/NIH/NIAID Contract Nos. HHSN272201700060C and 75N93022C00035 to K.J.F.S. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Use of the LS-CAT Sector 21 was supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor (Grant 085P1000817). Access to LS-CAT and computation resources is coordinated by the Northwestern Structural Biology Facility, which is funded in part by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Research Center award from the NCI P30CA060553. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given the right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, as defined by NIH.
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D.R.-M. conceived the study and designed the research. A.F., C.L., Y.H., and G.M. performed experiments and collected data. B.F., R.P., D.R., L.S., K.J.F.S., and D.R.-M. carried out data analysis and visualization. B.F., R.P., and D.R. developed analytical tools and software. A.F., C.L., G.M., R.P., D.R., L.S., K.J.F.S., and D.R.-M. interpreted the results. D.R.-M. and K.J.F.S. supervised the study and drafted the manuscript with input from all authors. All authors discussed the results, revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content, and approved the final version.
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Frederick, A., Lopes, C., Fulton, B. et al. Altering chemotaxis as a strategy to enhance the foraging range of motility-restricted bacteria. Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09475-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09475-w
