Of these CDS, 80% could be assigned a function and, as expected, a large proportion was inferred to play part in basic bacterial functions such as synthesis of proteins, nucleosides and nucleotides, amino acids, co-factor prosthetic groups and carriers, and of the cell envelope (see Additional file 2 for the full listing).
Functional amyloids are used in normal biological functions such as bacterial biofilm formation, human melanin synthesis, or as storage units for peptide hormones.
The BioBricks are designed so they can easily be combined into larger circuits, or series of genes that induce a bacterial cell to perform complex functions such as glowing when exposed to a certain chemical.
Interestingly, few bacterial RO homologs with novel functions, such as oxidative cyclization during biosynthesis of certain antibiotics, hydroxylation and desaturation of short-chain tertiary alcohols and alkane monooxygenation, have been reported in recent years (Sydor et al. 2011; Schäfer et al. 2012; Li et al. 2013).
AI-2 is taken up by specific membrane receptors in bacterial transport systems to regulate physiological functions, such as LuxP in V. harveyi (Chen et al. 2002), LsrB in S. typhimurium (Miller et al. 2004) and RbsB in H. influenza (Armbruster et al. 2011).
Bacterial MVs are involved in several biological functions, such as delivery of cargo, virulence and gene transfer.
In the bile, hepcidin may serve local functions such as protection from bacterial infections.
Filgrastim is a granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) which stimulates neutrophil production in bone marrow as well as strengthens their functions, such as phagocytosis and bacterial killing [ 11].
Mtb-directed antibodies may mediate effector functions such as opsonization of bacterial cells, neutralization of secreted antigens, and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) [ 16, 17] (summarized in Figure 1).
In other bacterial taxa, these ECF-family σ factors regulate functions such as alginate biosynthesis, iron-citrate transport, pyoverdine biosynthesis and cytochrome expression [123], and have been associated with virulence in S. enterica, P. aeruginosa and M. tuberculosis [124].
Knottin fold proteins (Hartig et al., 2005) share a variety of cell modulatory functions such as immune defense, anti-bacterial activity, receptor binding domains and as insecticides.
