Open AccessIn vivo phosphorylation of OmpR, the transcription activator of the ompF and ompC genes in Escherichia coli
Author(s) -
Steve Forst,
Jorge Delgado,
Arfaan Rampersaud,
Masayori Inouye
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.652
H-Index - 246
eISSN - 1067-8832
pISSN - 0021-9193
DOI - 10.1128/jb.172.6.3473-3477.1990
Subject(s) - phosphorylation , biology , histidine kinase , activator (genetics) , kinase , operon , microbiology and biotechnology , transcription (linguistics) , transcription factor , gene , in vivo , two component regulatory system , escherichia coli , biochemistry , genetics , mutant , linguistics , philosophy
An in vivo approach was taken to assess whether the phosphorylated state of the transcription activator OmpR was affected by changes in the osmolarity of the growth medium or by mutations in envZ, the gene encoding the inner membrane histidine kinase that phosphorylates OmpR. We present results that support the view that increased phosphorylation of OmpR is correlated with enhanced expression of ompC. The in vivo phosphorylation approach was also used to show that OmpR can be phosphorylated in an envZ null strain. This result indicates that phosphorylation cross talk can occur in vivo between OmpR and a kinase(s) that is functionally homologous to envZ.