Rethinking 'secondary' metabolism: physiological roles for phenazine antibiotics
Abstract
Microorganisms exist in the environment as multicellular communities that face the challenge of surviving under nutrient-limited conditions. Chemical communication is an essential part of the way in which these populations coordinate their behavior, and there has been an explosion of understanding in recent years regarding how this is accomplished. Much less, however, is understood about the way these communities sustain their metabolism. Bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas are ubiquitous, and are distinguished by their production of colorful secondary metabolites called phenazines. In this article, we suggest that phenazines, which are produced under conditions of high cell density and nutrient limitation, may be important for the persistence of pseudomonads in the environment.
Additional Information
© 2006 Nature Publishing Group. Published online 18 January 2006; corrected 7 March 2006. The work was supported by an NIH training grant (A. P.-W.) and a postdoctoral EMBO fellowship (L.E.P.D.) administered by the California Institute of Technology, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (D.K.N.) and the Packard Foundation.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 37475
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130312-140213883
- NIH Training Grant
- Caltech EMBO fellowship
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Created
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2013-03-13Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences