From the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system to selfish metabolism: a story retraced in Pseudomonas putida.

Although DNA is the ultimate repository of biological information, deployment of its instructions is constrained by the metabolic and physiological status of the cell. To this end, bacteria have evolved intricate devices that connect exogenous signals (e.g. nutrients, physicochemical conditions) with endogenous conditions (metabolic fluxes, biochemical networks) that coordinately influence expression or performance of a large number of cellular functions. The phosphoenolpyruvate:carbohydrate-phosphotransferase system (PTS) is a bacterial multi-protein phosphorylation chain which computes extracellular (e.g. sugars) and intracellular (e.g. phosphoenolpyruvate, nitrogen) signals and translates them into post-translational regulation of target activities through protein-protein interactions. The PTS of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 encompasses one complete sugar (fructose)-related system and the three enzymes that form the so-called nitrogen-related PTS (PTS(N) (tr) ), which lacks connection to transport of substrates. These two PTS branches cross-talk to each other, as the product of the fruB gene (a polyprotein EI-HPr-EIIA) can phosphorylate PtsN (EIIA(N) (tr) ) in vivo. This gives rise to a complex actuator device where diverse physiological inputs are ultimately translated into phosphorylation or not of PtsN (EIIA(N) (tr) ) which, in turn, checks the activity of key metabolic and regulatory proteins. Such a control of bacterial physiology highlights the prominence of biochemical homeostasis over genetic ruling -and not vice versa.

© 2014 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.