Thermosensing Function of the<i>Escherichia coli</i>Redox Sensor Aer

Abstract

Escherichia coli chemoreceptors can sense changes in temperature for thermotaxis. Here we found that the aerotaxis transducer Aer, a homolog of chemoreceptors lacking a periplasmic domain, mediates thermoresponses. We propose that thermosensing by the chemoreceptors is a general attribute of their highly conserved cytoplasmic domain (or their less conserved transmembrane domain).