Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Following in Real Time the Impact of Pneumococcal Virulence Factors in an Acute Mouse Pneumonia Model Using Bioluminescent Bacteria
Published on: February 23, 2014
Strain-specific regulatory role of eukaryote-like serine/threonine phosphatase in pneumococcal adherence
Shivangi Agarwal1, Shivani Agarwal, Preeti Pancholi
1Department of Pathology, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Abstract:
Streptococcus pneumoniae exploits a battery of virulence factors to colonize the host. Although the eukaryote-like Ser/Thr kinase of S. pneumoniae (StkP) has been implicated in physiology and virulence, the role of its cotranscribing phosphatase (PhpP) has remained elusive. The construction of nonpolar markerless phpP knockout mutants (ΔphpP) in two pathogenic strains, D39 (type 2) and 6A-EF3114 (type 6A), indicated that PhpP is not indispensable for pneumococcal survival. Further, PhpP also participates in the regulation of cell wall biosynthesis/division, adherence, and biofilm formation in a strain-specific manner. Additionally, we provide hitherto-unknown in vitro and in vivo evidence of a physiologically relevant biochemical link between the StkP/PhpP-mediated cognate regulation and the two-component regulatory system TCS06 (RR06/HK06) that regulates the expression of the gene encoding an important pneumococcal surface adhesin, CbpA, which was found to be significantly upregulated in ΔphpP mutants. In particular, StkP (threonine)-phosphorylated RR06 bound to the cbpA promoter with high efficiency even in the absence of the HK06-responsive and catalytically active aspartate 51 residue. Together, our findings unravel the significant contributions of PhpP in pneumococcal physiology and adherence.
More Related Videos
08:53Biochemical and Structural Characterization of the Carbohydrate Transport Substrate-binding-protein SP0092
Published on: October 2, 2017
10:18A Fast and Reliable Pipeline for Bacterial Transcriptome Analysis Case study: Serine-dependent Gene Regulation in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Published on: April 25, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Regulation of Bacterial Virulence
Atypical Pneumonia
Covalently Linked Protein Regulators
These groups modify specific amino acids in a protein.
Stringent Response in E. coli
Phosphoinositides and PIPs
Different phosphoinositides are synthesized and recruited on the cytosolic face of the plasma membrane. The localization of specific phosphoinositides concentrated in separate membrane...
Phosphorylation
During phosphorylation, protein kinases transfer the terminal phosphate group of ATP to specific amino acid side chains of substrate proteins. Serine, threonine, and tyrosine are the most commonly...