• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.708-714
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• 2007

The two-component signal transduction, which typically consists of a histidine kinase and a response regulator, is used by bacterial cells to sense changes in their environment. Previously, the SphS-SphR histidine kinase and response regulator pair of phosphate sensing signal transduction has been identified in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. In addition, some response regulators in bacteria have been shown to be cross regulated by low molecular weight phosphorylated compounds in the absence of the cognate histidine kinase. The ability of an endogenous acetyl phosphate to phosphorylate the response regulator, SphR in the absence of the cognate histidine kinase, SphS was therefore tested in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The mutant lacking functional SphS and acetate kinase showed no detectable alkaline phosphatase activity under phosphate-limiting growth conditions. The results suggested that the endogenous acetyl phosphate accumulated inside the mutants could not activate the SphR via phosphorylation. On the other hand, exogenous acetyl phosphate could allow the mutant lacking functional acetate kinase and phosphotransacetylase to grow under phosphate-limiting conditions suggesting the role of acetyl phosphate as an energy source. Reverse transcription PCR demonstrated that the transcripts of acetate kinase and phospho-transacetylase genes in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is up-regulated in response to phosphate limitation suggesting the importance of these two enzymes for energy metabolism in Synechocystis cells

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.213-218
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• 1996

Symbionin, ahomologue of E. coli GroEL, produced by an intracellular symbiont of the pea aphid , has molecular chaperone activity bothin vitro and in vivo, and it is able to tarnsfer its high-energy phospholy group to other compounds through its autophosphorylation and phosphotransferase activity. The symbionin is a novel histidine protein Kinase and a senor molecular of the two-component pathway.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.853-860
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• 2010

The DevSR two-component system is a major regulatory system involved in redox sensing in Mycobacterium smegmatis. The DevSR system consists of the DevS histidine kinase and its cognate DevR response regulator. When exposed to hypoxic conditions, the DevS histidine kinase is activated to phosphorylate the DevR response regulator, leading to the transcriptional activation of the DevR regulation. The ligand-binding state of the heme embedded in the N-terminal GAF domain of DevS determines the kinase activity of DevS. In this study, we demonstrated that the redox-responsive cysteine (C547) in the C-terminal kinase domain is involved in the redox-dependent control of DevS kinase activity. The formation of an intersubunit disulfide bond between the C547 residues in the presence of $O_2$ led to inactivation of DevS kinase activity. The reduction of the oxidized DevS with reductants such as $\beta$-mercaptoethanol and dithiothreitol resulted in the restoration of DevS kinase activity. It was demonstrated in vivo by complementation test that the substitution of C547 to alanine partially impaired the sensory function of DevS in M. smegmatis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.3 s.76
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• pp.485-492
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• 2006

The PrrBA two-component system is one of the major regulatory systems that control expression of photosynthesis genes in response to changes in oxygen tension in the anoxygenic photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The system consists of the PrrB histidine kinase and the PrrA response regulator. The N-terminal transmembrane domain of PrrB serves as a signal-sensing domain and comprises six transmembrane helices forming three periplasmic loops and two cytoplasmic loops. The $3^{rd}$ and $4^{th}$ transmembrane helices and the $2^{nd}$ periplasmic loop were suggested to play a crucial role in redox-sensory function. In this study we demonstrated that mutations of Asp-90, Gln-93, Leu-94, Leu-98, and Asn-106 in the $2^{nd}$ periplasmic loop and its neighboring region led to severe defects in PrrB sensory function, indicating that these amino acids might be related to the redox-sensing function of PrrB. The mutant forms (D90E, D90N, and D90A) of PrrB were heterologously overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified by means of affinity chromatography and their autokinase activities were comparatively assessed. The D90N form of PrrB was shown to possess higher autokinase activity than the wild-type form of PrrB, whereas the D90E form of PrrB displayed lower autokinase activity than the wild-type form of PrrB. The D90A mutation led to the loss of PrrB autokinase activity.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2007

Protein kinases play very important role for maintaining viability in prokaryote and eukaryote. The metabolism of prokaryotic cell is generally regulated by bacterial two-component regulatory systems that are composed of histidine and asparitic acid kinases, however, some eukaryotic signal transduction system such as, serine and threonine kinases, have been also found to be involved in the regulation of morphogenesis and physiological differentiation in Streptomyces. Streptomyces griseus, a streptomycin producer, was expected to have varlous types of eukaryotic-type serine/threonine protein kinases, controlling morphogenesis. Thus, many steps of chromatographies were applied to isolate serine and threonine kinases from S. griseus IFO13350. The immunoaffinity steps using anti-phosphoserine, anti-phosphothreonine, and anti-phosphotyrosine agarose column chramatographies were successfully introduced to identify eukaryotic protein kinases from S. griseus IFO13350. Eight proteins with the expected molecular weight of 14, 29, 31, 35, 40, 52, 56, and 60 kDa, were identified on SDS-PAGE, and the their kination activity was confirmed by nonradioactive protein kination assay using FITC-labeled peptide as the substrate.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.60-60
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• 2015

Hybrid histidine kinase is a part of two-component system that is required for various stress responses and pathogenesis of pathogenic fungi. In the present study, Tco1, a homologue of human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans Tco1 encoding a hybrid histidine kinase, was identified in corn smut pathogen Ustilago maydis by bioinformatic analysis. To explore the role of Tco1 in the virulence of U. maydis, mutants in which the tco1 gene was partially deleted were constructed by allelic exchange. The U. maydis tco1 mutants did show unaltered growth rate on axenic medium but were unable to produce conjugation tubes and develop fuzzy filaments, resulting in impaired mating of compatible strains. The expression levels of prf1, pra1, and mfa1 which are involved in the pheromone pathway significantly decreased in the tco1 mutants. In inoculation tests to host, the tco1 mutants showed significantly reduced ability in the production of anthocyanin pigments and tumor development on maize leaves. Overall, the combined results indicated that Tco1 plays important roles in sexual development and virulence of U. maydis by regulating the expression of the genes involved in the pheromone pathway.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.1010-1022
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• 2017

Hybrid histidine kinase is part of a two-component system that is required for various stress responses and pathogenesis of pathogenic fungi. The Tco1 gene in human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans encodes a hybrid histidine kinase and is important for pathogenesis. In this study, we identified a Tco1 homolog, UmTco1, in the maize pathogen Ustilago maydis by bioinformatics analysis. To explore the role of UmTco1 in the survival of U. maydis under environmental stresses and its pathogenesis, ${\Delta}umtco1$ mutants were constructed by allelic exchange. The growth of ${\Delta}umtco1$ mutants was significantly impaired when they were cultured under hyperosmotic stress. The ${\Delta}umtco1$ mutants exhibited increased resistance to antifungal agent fludioxonil. In particular, the ${\Delta}umtco1$ mutants were unable to produce cytokinesis or conjugation tubes, and to develop fuzzy filaments, resulting in impaired mating between compatible strains. The expression levels of Prf1, Pra1, and Mfa1, which are involved in the pheromone pathway, were significantly decreased in the ${\Delta}umtco1$ mutants. In inoculation tests to the host plant, the ${\Delta}umtco1$ mutants showed significantly reduced ability in the production of anthocyanin pigments and tumor development on maize leaves. Overall, the combined results indicated that UmTco1 plays important roles in the survival under hyperosmotic stress, and contributes to cytokinesis, sexual development, and virulence of U. maydis by regulating the expression of the genes involved in the pheromone pathway.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

Four series (S, M, R, and W) of Alternaria longipes isolates were obtained based on consecutive selection with Dimethachlon (Dim) and ultraviolet irradiation. These isolates were then characterized according to their tolerance to Dim, sensitivity to osmotic stress, and phenotypic properties. All the selected Dim-resistant isolates showed a higher osmosensitivity than the parental strains, and the last generation was more resistant than the first generation in the M, R, and W series. In addition, the changes in the Dim resistance and osmotic sensitivity were not found to be directly correlated, and no distinct morphologic characteristics were found among the resistant and sensitive isolates, with the exception of the resistant isolate K-11. Thus, to investigate the molecular basis of the fungicide resistance, a group III two-component histidine kinase (HK) gene, AlHK1, was cloned from nineteen A. longipes isolates. AlHK1p was found to be comprised of a six 92-amino-acid repeat domain (AARD), HK domain, and response regulator domain, similar to the Os-1p from Neurospora crassa. A comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the AlHK1 gene from the Dim-sensitive and -resistant isolates revealed that all the resistant isolates contained a single-point mutation in the AARD of AlHK1p, with the exception of isolate K-11, where the AlHK1p contained a deletion of 107 amino acids. Moreover, the AlHK1p mutations in the isolates of each respective series involved the same amino acid substitution at the same site, although the resistance levels differed significantly in each series. Therefore, these findings suggested that a mutation in the AARD of AlHK1p was not the sole factor responsible for A. longipes resistance to dicarboximide fungicides.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2010

Bacillus subtilis PhoP-PhoR two-component system (TCS) senses phosphate deficiency conditions, and then controls expression of the Pho regulon to prolong survival. The sensor histidine kinase, PhoR, is autophosphorylated and transfers the phosphate to the response regulator, PhoP. Phosphorylated PhoP (PhoP~P) binds to repeated 6-bp consensus PhoP binding sequences of Pho regulon promoters and activates or represses gene expression. Pho signal transduction systems are part of interconnected signal transduction network involving at least three TCSs (PhoP-PhoR, ResD-ResE TCS, SpoOA phosphorelay), a global carbon metabolism regulator (CcpA), and transition state regulators (AbrB, ScoC). In addition, PhoP-PhoR TCS is cross related with YycF-YycG TCS by cross-regulation. While indescribable progress has been made in understanding phosphate deficiency stress response through refined expression of the Pho regulon in the recent past years, many important questions still remain. Solving these questions may provide important information for application study using B. subtilis.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.284-292
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• 2006

The cbb3 cytochrome c oxidase has the dual function as a terminal oxidase and oxygen sensor in the photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The cbb3 oxidase forms a signal transduction pathway together with the PrrBA two-component system that controls photosynthesis gene expression in response to changes in oxygen tension in the environment. Under aerobic conditions the cbb3 oxidase generates an inhibitory signal, which shifts the equilibrium of PrrB kinase/phosphatase activities towards the phosphatase mode. Photosynthesis genes are thereby turned off under aerobic conditions. The catalytic subunit (CcoN) of the R. sphaeroides cbb3 oxidase contains five histidine residues (H2l4, B233, H303, H320, and H444) that are conserved in all CcoN subunits of the cbb3 oxidase, but not in the catalytic subunits of other members of copper-heme superfamily oxidases. H214A mutation of CcoN affected neither catalytic activity nor sensory (signaling) function of the cbb3 oxidase, whereas H320A mutation led to almost complete loss of both catalytic activity and sensory function of the cbb3 oxidase. H233V and H444A mutations brought about the partial loss of catalytic activity and sensory function of the cbb3 oxidase. Interestingly, the H303A mutant form of the cbb3 oxidase retains the catalytic function as a cytochrome c oxidase as compared to the wild-type oxidase, while it is defective in signaling function as an oxygen sensor. H303 appears to be implicated in either signal sensing or generation of the inhibitory signal to the PrrBA two-component system.