Environmental stress regulates Shigella virulence: Interplay between anerobiosis and iron acquisition

The ability to regulate gene expression in response to environmental changes is required for bacterial survival. This is particularly true for pathogenic microbes that colonize in dynamic host sites. As such, many host environmental cues actually serve as intricate signals that control virulence gene expression. In the paper evaluated here, Boulette and Payne present evidence that anerobiosis regulates Shigelia virulence-gene expression via a complex interplay between the regulatory proteins ArcA and ferric-uptake regulator.