Functional analysis of a potassium sensing kinase in Bacillus subtilis

The formation of multicellular communities requires extensive intracellular communication and although much has been learned about the intricate regulatory network involved in differentiation and biofilm formation, relatively little is known about the signals responsible for initiating bacterial multicellularity. Recently, a novel mechanism for triggering multicellularity in Bacillus subtilis was described and surprisingly, the signaling mechanism involves a histidine kinase activated by potassium leakage. Discovery of the novel signaling mechanism provides an opportunity to perform a rigorous functional analysis of the potassium sensing histidine kinase and to determine whether and how other genes are involved in sensing potassium leakage.