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Pseudomonas Methods and Protocols pp 87–97Cite as

Qualitative and Quantitative Assays for Flagellum-Mediated Chemotaxis

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1149))

Abstract

A primary driving force during bacterial evolution was the capacity to access compounds necessary for growth and survival. Since the species of the genus Pseudomonas are characterized by metabolic versatility, these bacteria have developed chemotactic behaviors towards a wide range of different compounds. The specificity of a chemotactic response is determined by the chemoreceptor, which is at the beginning of the signaling cascade and to which chemoattractants and chemorepellents bind. The number of chemoreceptor genes of Pseudomonas species is significantly higher than the average number in motile bacteria. Although some of the receptors have been annotated with a function, the cognate signal molecules for the majority of them still need to be identified. Different qualitative and quantitative methods are presented that can be used to study flagellum-mediated taxis.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Andalusian regional government Junta de Andalucía (grant P09-RNM-4509 to T.K.) and the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (grant Bio2010-16937 to T.K.). We thank Juan-Luis Ramos for reading the chapter and his continuous support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Protection, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, C/ Prof. Albareda 1, 18008, Granada, Spain

    José Antonio Reyes Darias, Cristina García-Fontana, Andrés Corral Lugo, Miriam Rico-Jiménez & Tino Krell

Authors
  1. José Antonio Reyes Darias
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  2. Cristina García-Fontana
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  3. Andrés Corral Lugo
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  4. Miriam Rico-Jiménez
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  5. Tino Krell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tino Krell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection (CMBI) Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College, London, UK

    Alain Filloux

  2. Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Granada, Spain

    Juan-Luis Ramos

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Darias, J.A.R., García-Fontana, C., Lugo, A.C., Rico-Jiménez, M., Krell, T. (2014). Qualitative and Quantitative Assays for Flagellum-Mediated Chemotaxis. In: Filloux, A., Ramos, JL. (eds) Pseudomonas Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1149. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0473-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0473-0_10

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-0472-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-0473-0

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