Enzyme I of the phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotransferase system has two sites of phosphorylation per dimer

Enzyme I of the phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotransferase system of Escherichia coli has been reported to contain one phosphorylation site per dimer and thus operates by either a half of the sites or a flip-flop mechanism [Misset, O., & Robillard, G. T. (1982) Biochemistry 21, 3136-3142; Hoving, T., ten Hoeve-Duurkens, R., & Robillard, G. T. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 4335-4340]. In this paper, the determination of two phosphorylation sites per dimer of enzyme I was made by using a number of different methods. In some experiments, less than two sites per dimer were found, but a concomitant loss in enzyme I activity was also found. The phosphorylated residue in enzyme I was shown to have the properties expected for a N3-phosphohistidinyl residue.