A gastric pathogen moves chemotaxis in a new direction
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Updated: May 29, 2026

Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation
Published on: November 9, 2017
Emily Goers Sweeney1, Karen Guillemin
1Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Abstract:
For almost 50 years, Escherichia coli has been the model for understanding how bacteria orient their movement in response to chemical cues, but recent studies of chemotaxis in other bacteria have revealed interesting variations from prevailing paradigms. Investigating the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori, Amieva and colleagues [mBio 2(4):e00098-11, 2011] discovered a new chemotaxis regulator, ChePep, which modulates swimming behavior through the canonical histidine-aspartate phosphorelay system. Functionally conserved among the epsilonproteobacteria, ChePep is essential for H. pylori to navigate deep into the stomach's gastric glands and may be an attractive target for novel antibiotics.
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