Location, location, location. Salmonella senses ethanolamine to gauge distinct host environments and coordinate gene expression

Chemical and nutrient signaling mediate all cellular processes, ensuring survival in response to changing environmental conditions. Ethanolamine is a component of phosphatidylethanolamine, a major phospholipid of mammalian and bacterial cell membranes. Ethanolamine is abundant in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract from dietary sources as well as from the normal turnover of intestinal epithelial and bacterial cells in the gut. Additionally, mammalian cells maintain intracellular ethanolamine concentrations through low and high-affinity uptake systems and the internal recycling of phosphatidylethanolamine; therefore, ethanolamine is ubiquitous throughout the mammalian host. Although ethanolamine has profound signaling activity within mammalian cells by modulating inflammatory responses and intestinal physiology, ethanolamine is best appreciated as a nutrient for bacteria that supports growth. In our recent work (Anderson, et al. PLoS Pathog (2015), 11: e1005278), we demonstrated that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (Salmonella) exploits ethanolamine signaling to adapt to distinct host environments to precisely coordinate expression of genes encoding metabolism and virulence, which ultimately enhances disease progression.