Post Translational Modification in Response to Stresses in Bacteria

Organisms use post translation modifications (PTM) as economical adaptations to metabolic processes under adverse conditions. Unlike the relatively more energetically expensive process of de novo synthesis of proteins, PTMs allow cells to regulate metabolic functions by modulating protein functions. Cellular complexity demands more PTM based temporal and spatial regulation of protein functions in the cells. As bacteria are relatively simple organisms compared to eukaryotic cells, they can afford higher plasticity in de novo processes, and therefore PTMs have been less studied in bacteria as compared to multicellular organisms. The availability of genetic information in a few model bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis and the presence of few prominent protein modifier genes coded by their genomes further adds to this limitation. However, the two component systems (TCS) comprising histidine kinases and cognate response regulators have been extensively studied and found to be strong implicated with stress response mechanisms in bacteria.

The recent advances in genomics and computational biology have unfolded the blue print of life in a large number of bacteria. Genome analyses of these bacteria have shown the presence of a whole range of PTM modifiers beyond what is known in higher organisms. Therefore, the functional significance of this variety of PTMs in bacteria has been raised recently. New information in this area is continually made available. For instance, Ser/Thr protein kinase mediated phosphorylation of DNA repair and cell division proteins regulating extraordinary DNA damage resistance, and bacterial cell morphology and division has suggested a strong possibility of an alternative mechanism of cell cycle regulation in bacteria. The research on bacterial PTMs is progressing so quickly that a common platform of exchange is essential to integrate these advances. This special issue on bacterial PTMs has thus been launched to bring many researchers of this domain together. The proposed issue of “Frontiers in Microbiology” on “Post Translational Modifications in Response to Stresses in Bacteria (PTMRSB)” is likely to globally attract the best research in this area.

This special issue is restricted to the work carried out in bacteria in the following areas
• Post-Translational Modification in Bacteria
• Enzymology of post translational modification
• DNA damage and repair involving PTMs in bacteria
• PTM involvement in growth adaptation, cell morphology and cell division
• Proteomics of PTMs
• PTM and host-microbe interaction
• PTM involvement in the regulation of gut microbiome dynamics
• PTM and the cell surface structures
• PTM as potential drug targets
• PTM and bacterial infections
• PTM in bacterial biofilm formation