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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Che, chemotaxis, Pho, phosphate, Escherichia coli, bacteria

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

Bacteria live in a continuously changing environment. In order to survive, bacteria must monitor nutrients, acidity, temperature, osmolarity, etc. The use of two-component systems to sense and respond to these environmental changes is a common motif observed in a wide variety of organisms. A two-component system consists of two main proteins, a sensor and a response regulator(2). The sensor protein is a trans-membrane protein which monitors environmental fluctuations and activates the response regulator through phosphorylation. The response regulator contains two domains, the receiver module and the output domain. The receiver module is phosphorylated and dephosphorylated by the sensor protein. Communication between the phosphorylated receiver domain and the output domain subsequently mediates changes in gene expression or locomotion(2).

Included in

Microbiology Commons

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