Cell cycle control by an essential bacterial two-component signal transduction protein.
Dividing cells must coordinate cell cycle events to ensure genetic stability. Here we identify an essential two-component signal transduction protein that controls multiple events in the Caulobacter cell cycle, including cell division, stalk synthesis, and cell cycle-specific transcription. This protein, CtrA, is homologous to response regulator transcription factors and controls transcription from a group of cell cycle-regulated promoters critical for DNA replication, DNA methylation, and flagellar biogenesis. CtrA activity in the cell cycle is controlled both transcriptionally and by phosphorylation. As purified CtrA binds an essential DNA sequence motif found within its target promoters, we propose that CtrA acts in a phosphorelay signal transduction system to control bacterial cell cycle events directly at the transcriptional level.
Department of Developmental Biology, Beckman Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, California 94305-5427, USA.
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D016934:Caulobacter / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins