Journal of Undergraduate Research
Keywords
site specific mutations, phoR gene, E. coli chromosome
College
Life Sciences
Department
Microbiology and Molecular Biology
Abstract
Phosphate intake by Escherichia coli serves as a good model system to study phosphate intake by other bacteria. The pho phosphate uptake system used by E. coli is well conserved in pathogens like Vibrio cholerae (1). To better understand this important mode of phosphate uptake a study was performed to examine the interactions between the phoR and phoU proteins of this system. PhoU interacts with the pstSCAB complex, which brings phosphate into the cell. After communicating with pstSCAB the phoU protein interacts with phoR to tell it if phosphate is present in the environment or not. PhoR has been shown to be a membrane bound histidine kinase that phosphorylates and dephosphorylates the phoB protein to control expression of genes involved in phosphate uptake (2). The goal of this study was to insert mutations of the phoR gene into the E. coli chromosome in order to examine which amino acids are essential for interaction between phoU and phoR.
Recommended Citation
Woodward, Cameron and McCleary, William
(2015)
"A Method of Introducing Site Specific Mutations into the phoR Gene of the E. coli Chromosome,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2015:
Iss.
1, Article 147.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2015/iss1/147