Microorganisms have diverse survival strategies for increasing their fitness in response tochallenging environmental conditions. Many of these survival strategies require signal
sensing systems to relay environmental input to cellular output. One of the ubiquitous
signaling systems used by microorganisms is c-di-GMP signaling. C-di-GMP is produced and
degraded by diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) and phosphodiesterases (PDEs), respectively,
and many of these proteins contain signal-sensing domains to modulate their enzymatic
activity. C-di-GMP signaling regulates key bacterial processes such as biofilm formation,
motility, and virulence in response to varying environmental parameters.
Here I first review recent successful strategies for discovering and developing c-di-GMPspecific
inhibitors with the goal of acting as therapeutics for the prevention and dispersal of
biofilms. Next, I discuss the results of my studies designed to understand the transcriptional
regulation of a key DGC, VpvC. I found that the vpvABC system is under the control of a c-di-
GMP sensing circuit and a stationary growth phase circuit, which together are responsible for
the transcription of vpvABC. Finally, I discuss my studies investigating the V. cholerae RpoS
regulon in biofilm-grown cells with high and low c-di-GMP cellular c-di-GMP levels. In biofilmgrown
cells, RpoS regulates stress response, chemotaxis and motility, biofilm formation, and
pathogenesis; some of these processes are regulated in a cellular c-di-GMP level-dependent manner. Additionally, I discovered that RpoS positively regulates the transcription of a sizable
number of genes encoding DGCs and PDEs, demonstrating RpoS's significance in c-di-GMP
signaling specificity in V. cholerae.