Metal-containing PAS/GAF domains in bacterial sensors

PAS and related GAF are ubiquitous highly versatile sensing domains that associate a range of signaling effectors. Each year, new bacterial characterized but genomes analysis suggests this list is far from complete. This review aims to synthesize the current state knowledge on structure activity metal-binding PAS/GAF domain proteins. can bind disparate metal cofactors with very precise coordination high specificity concomitant their extensive sequence diversity. Bound-metal directly be signal or mediate detection such as gases redox variation. Metal-containing input modules mainly associated histidine kinases two-component systems σ54-dependent transcription factors. In both cases, induces conformational changes modulate effector activity. It appears metal-containing domains, other offer great possibilities for coupling broad ligand binding various cellular responses it likely they have not yet revealed all secrets.