Genetics and genomics of stress-induced gene expression in rhizobia

摘要

In nature, bacterial growth is restricted by a wide variety of environmental factors, including the lack of essential nutrients, osmotic stress, oxygen limitation and oxidative stress. In most natural settings at least some essential nutrients are limiting, and stress conditions are prevalent, therefore periods of negligible growth or dormancy are the more typical physiological state of bacteria. Understanding how bacteria are able to monitor, sense, and respond to their environment in nutrient-deprived, stressed physiological states or in eukaryotic host tissues is fundamental to our understanding of microbial biology and ecology, as well as symbiotic plant-microbe interactions.