Abstract
evgS and evgA located at 51min on the Escherichia coli chromosome were previously found as a new two-component system, which is highly homologous to bvgS and bvgA in Bordetella pertussis. In this study, the putative phosphorylation and phospho-transferred sites of EvgS and EvgA, respectively, were changed using modified primers during PCR amplification of their structural genes, and their functions were analyzed in vivo. The ompC expression was induced in a ΔenvZ E. coli in the presence of pSK-001, which contains evgS and evgA, but was not changed in the presence of pKM18 (evgS721Arg) or pKM12 (evgA52Ala). Moreover, phosphotransfer from phosphorylated EvgS to EvgA was observed in vitro using the membrane fraction containing EvgS and His-tagged EvgA. These results suggested that the signal transduction via EvgS and EvgA involves
the previously reported phosphorelay in the two-component system via BvgS and BvgA.
