Catabolite control of Escherichia coli regulatory protein BglG activity by antagonistically acting phosphorylations

Abstract

In bacteria various sugars are taken up and concomitantly phosphorylated by sugar‐specific enzymes II (EII) of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS). The phosphoryl groups are donated by the phosphocarrier protein HPr. BglG, the positively acting regulatory protein of the Escherichia coli bgl (β‐glucoside utilization) operon, is known to be negatively regulated by reversible phosphorylation catalyzed by the membrane spanning β‐glucoside‐specific EII^Bgl. Here we present evidence that in addition BglG must be phosphorylated by HPr at a distinct site to gain activity. Our data suggest that this second, shortcut route of phosphorylation is used to monitor the state of the various PTS sugar availabilities in order to hierarchically tune expression of the bgl operon in a physiologically meaningful way. Thus, the PTS may represent a highly integrated signal transduction network in carbon catabolite control.