Effect of methionine on chemotaxis by Bacillus subtilis

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Abstract
B. subtilis, like Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium, carries out chemotaxis by modulating the relative frequency of smooth swimming and tumbling. Like these enteric bacteria, methionine auxotrophs starved for methionine show an abnormally long period of smooth swimming after addition of attractant. This hypersensitive state requires 1 h of starvation for its genesis, which can be hastened by including alanine, a strong attractant, in starvation medium. Susceptibility to repellent, ellent, which causes transient tumbling when added, if anything, increases slightly by starvation for methionine. The existence of a methionine-derived structure that hastens recovery of attractant-stimulated bacteria back to normal is postulated.