Haem-based sensors have emerged during the last 15 years as being a large family of proteins that occur in all kingdoms of life. These sensors are responsible mainly for detecting binding of O2, CO and NO and reporting the ligation status to an output domain with an enzymatic or macromolecule-binding property. A myriad of biological functions have been associated with these sensors, which are involved in vasodilation, bacterial symbiosis, chemotaxis and biofilm formation, among others. Here, we critically review several bacterial systems for O2 sensing that are extensively studied in many respects, focusing on the lessons that are important to advance the field.
Keywords: Haem-based sensor; Histidine protein kinase; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Nucleotide cyclase; Phosphodiesterase; Two-component systems; c-di-GMP.
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