Bacteria: Understanding Stress Responses

Abstract

Bacteria, just like all living things, must sense and respond to changes in the environment to survive.  Bacteria are exposed to constant, sudden, and harsh fluctuations in their conditions.  To adapt to these changes, they have developed refined stress responses, by controlling the process by which protein complexes are modeled, to survive changes in their environment.  These stress responses are sometimes very specific for a particular kind of stress. 

In this chapter will we study a few of the environmental changes that cause bacteria stress as well as the responses bacteria has to those changes. When bacteria sense a change in their environment or a threat their signaling systems respond by activating an alternative sigma factor or by activating response regulators.

Heat/Cold Shock Response

Oxygen Deprivation Stress Response

Starvation Stress Response

General Stress Response