Inverted behavioural responses in wild-type Rhodobacter sphaeroides to temporal stimuli

Both aerobically and photosynthetically grown wild-type Rhodobacter sphaeroides swarmed through soft nutrient agar. However, individual aerobically and photosynthetically grown tethered cells showed different responses to steps in concentrations of some attractants. Photosynthetically grown cells showed little response to a step-up in attractant, but large response to a step-down. Aerobically grown cells showed a large but opposite response to a step-up of chemoeffectors such as succinate and aspartate. The responses in che operon deletion mutants were also investigated and indicated that the aerobic response may depend on the protein products of che operon 1. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies.