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An alternate route to phosphorylating DegU of Bacillus subtilis using acetyl phosphate

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Microbiology, March 2015
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  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (67th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (75th percentile)

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Title
An alternate route to phosphorylating DegU of Bacillus subtilis using acetyl phosphate
Published in
BMC Microbiology, March 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12866-015-0410-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Lynne S Cairns, Jessica E Martyn, Keith Bromley, Nicola R Stanley-Wall

Abstract

Two-component signal transduction pathways allow bacteria to sense and respond to the environment. Typically such pathways comprise a sensor histidine kinase and a response regulator. Phosphorylation of the response regulator commonly results in its activation, allowing the protein to bind to target promoter elements to regulate transcription. Several mechanisms are used to prevent inappropriate phosphorylation of the response regulator, thereby ensuring a specific response. In Bacillus subtilis, the DegS-DegU two-component system controls transcription of target genes in a manner dependent on the level of the phosphorylated response regulator, DegU. Previous work has tentatively indicated that DegU, and DegU H(12)L, a DegU variant which displays enhanced stability of the phosphoryl moiety, can be phosphorylated in the absence of the kinase, DegS. The data presented here reveal that DegU H(12)L requires aspartic acid 56 (D(56)), the identified DegU phosphorylation site, for its activity. By indirectly measuring the level of DegU ~ P in the cell by assessment of several well recognised DegU regulated processes it was shown that DegU H(12)L retains its activity in the absence of DegS, and that mutation of D(56) produced an inactive protein. Further experiments designed to raise the level of acetyl phosphate within the cell suggest that DegU can be phosphorylated by acetyl phosphate in the absence of degS. Additionally, the phenotypic and biochemical experiments presented indicate that DegU H(12)L can reliably mimic high levels of phosphorylated DegU. The ability of acetyl phosphate to modify DegU, and indeed DegU H(12)L, reveal an additional layer of regulation for DegU phosphorylation that will be relevant when the level of DegS is low or in the absence of degS. Given the number of processes that DegU can activate or inhibit, extensive regulation at a number of levels is required to ensure that the system is not inappropriately stimulated. DegS has both kinase and phosphatase activity and our findings demonstrate that the phosphatase activity of DegS is essential to control the level of DegU phosphate. Overall we contribute to our understanding of how the intricate signalling pathway DegS-DegU is regulated in B. subtilis.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 7 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 29 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Mexico 1 3%
Unknown 28 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Doctoral Student 5 17%
Researcher 5 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 17%
Student > Master 4 14%
Other 2 7%
Other 3 10%
Unknown 5 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 12 41%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 8 28%
Environmental Science 1 3%
Unspecified 1 3%
Physics and Astronomy 1 3%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 6 21%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 April 2015.
All research outputs
#7,408,406
of 23,567,572 outputs
Outputs from BMC Microbiology
#829
of 3,261 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#86,477
of 265,502 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Microbiology
#14
of 56 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,567,572 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,261 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 265,502 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 56 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.