A novel sugar-stimulated covalent switch in a sugar sensor

The bgl sensory system is composed of a membrane-bound sugar sensor, BglF, and a transcriptional regulator, BglG. The sensor BglF has several enzymatic activities: in its nonstimulated state, it acts as BglG phosphorylase; in the presence of beta-glucoside in the growth medium, it acts as BglG dephosphorylase and as the beta-glucoside phosphotransferase. The same active site on BglF, Cys-24, is responsible for the phosphorylation of both the stimulating sugar and the BglG protein. BglF is composed of three domains, two hydrophilic and one hydrophobic. Our previous results suggested that catalysis of the sugar-stimulated functions depends on specific interactions between the B domain, which contains the active site cysteine, and the integral membrane C domain. We report here that the stimulating sugar triggers the formation of a disulfide bond between the active site cysteine and another cysteine in the membrane-embedded domain of BglF. Inability of a mutant BglF protein to form the disulfide bridge between the B and C domains correlates with its inability to catalyze the sugar-stimulated functions. The ability of the cysteine residue in BglF to bind covalently either to a phosphoryl group or to another cysteine residue, depending on the protein stimulation state, suggests a novel way to control signaling by alternative bond formation.