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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

DNA-affinity-purified Chip (DAP-chip) Method to Determine Gene Targets for Bacterial Two component Regulatory Systems
Published on: July 21, 2014
The multi-step phosphorelay mechanism of unorthodox two-component systems in E. coli realizes ultrasensitivity to
Jeong-Rae Kim1, Kwang-Hyun Cho
1Bio-MAX Institute, Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-818, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
E. coli has two-component systems composed of histidine kinase proteins and response regulator proteins. For a given extracellular stimulus, a histidine kinase senses the stimulus, autophosphorylates and then passes the phosphates to the cognate response regulators. The histidine kinase in an orthodox two-component system has only one histidine domain where the autophosphorylation occurs, but a histidine kinase in some unusual two-component systems (unorthodox two-component systems) has two histidine domains and one aspartate domain. So, the unorthodox two-component systems have more complex phosphorelay mechanisms than orthodox two-component systems. In general, the two-component systems are required to promptly respond to external stimuli for survival of E. coli. In this respect, the complex multi-step phosphorelay mechanism seems to be disadvantageous, but there are several unorthodox two-component systems in E. coli. In this paper, we investigate the reason why such unorthodox two-component systems are present in E. coli. For this purpose, we have developed simplified mathematical models of both orthodox and unorthodox two-component systems and analyzed their dynamical characteristics through extensive computer simulations. We have finally revealed that the unorthodox two-component systems realize ultrasensitive responses to external stimuli and also more robust responses to noises than the orthodox two-component systems.
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