Forcing the issue: aromatic tuning facilitates stimulus-independent modulation of a two-component signaling circuit.

ABSTRACT: Two-component signaling circuits allow bacteria to detect and respond to external stimuli. Unfortunately, the input stimulus remains unidentified for the majority of these circuits. Therefore, development of a synthetic method for stimulus-independent modulation of these circuits is highly desirable because particular physiological or developmental processes could be controlled for biotechnological purposes without the need to identify the stimulus itself. Here, we demonstrate that aromatic tuning, i.e., repositioning the aromatic residues commonly found at the cytoplasmic end of the receptor (EnvZ) transmembrane domain, facilitates stimulus-independent modulation of signal output from the EnvZ/OmpR osmosensing circuit of Escherichia coli. We found that these osmosensing circuits retained

SUBMITTER: Norholm MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4410910 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature