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Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives
CELL BIOLOGY: Enhanced: Surviving Starvation
Susan Gottesman and Michael R. Maurizi
What do cells do when times of plenty end and leaner days roll around? As Gottesman and Maurizi explain in their Perspective, it turns out that the Escherichia coli bacterium is anything but idle when its environment shifts from nutrient rich to nutrient poor. They discuss new findings showing that a string of phosphate residues in E. coli kicks the Lon protease into action. This enzyme then chops up ribosomal proteins to release free amino acids that are used to manufacture biosynthetic enzymes, which help the bacterium to adjust to its nutrient-poor environment (Kuroda et al.).
The authors are in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Laboratory of Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. E-mail: susang{at}helix.nih.gov
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In Science Magazine
REPORTS
Akio Kuroda, Kazutaka Nomura, Ryo Ohtomo, Junichi Kato, Tsukasa Ikeda, Noboru Takiguchi, Hisao Ohtake, and Arthur Kornberg (27 July 2001) Science293 (5530), 705.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1061315] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »|Supplemental Data »
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Characterization of the Staphylococcus aureus Heat Shock, Cold Shock, Stringent, and SOS Responses and Their Effects on Log-Phase mRNA Turnover..
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J. Bacteriol.
188, 6739-6756
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Inorganic polyphosphate in the origin and survival of species.
