Crosstalk and the evolution of specificity in two-component signaling.

ABSTRACT: Two-component signaling (TCS) serves as the dominant signaling modality in bacteria. A typical pathway includes a sensor histidine kinase (HK) that phosphorylates a response regulator (RR), modulating its activity in response to an incoming signal. Most HKs are bifunctional, acting as both kinase and phosphatase for their substrates. Unlike eukaryotic signaling networks, there is very little crosstalk between bacterial TCS pathways; indeed, adding crosstalk to a pathway can have disastrous consequences for cell fitness. It is currently unclear exactly what feature of TCS necessitates this degree of pathway isolation. In this work we used mathematical models to show that, in the case of bifunctional HKs, adding a competing substrate to a TCS pathway will always reduce response of that pathw

SUBMITTER: Rowland MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3992699 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature