Abstract
Signal transduction by the bacterial phosphotransferase system. Diauxie and the crr gene (J. Monod revisited).
Highlights
The phosphoenolpyruvate:glycose phosphotransferase system (PTS)’ is an array of cytoplasmic and membrane proteins with diverse physiological roles in the bacterial cell
(3); it is required for processes as different as those that produce dental caries, cheese, and soy sauce [3, 4]! These diverse functions have led to intensive study of the PTS at the biochemical and genetic levels, and it is the subject of many recent reviews
Monad’s approach [9] was to determine the growth rates of Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella typhimurium in chemically defined media containing two sugars
Summary
The phosphoenolpyruvate:glycose phosphotransferase system (PTS)’ is an array of cytoplasmic and membrane proteins with diverse physiological roles in the bacterial cell. The best defined function of the PTS is the phosphorylation of sugar substrates concomitant with their transport across the cytoplasmic membrane, a remarkably efficient group translocation process for capturing nutrients from the environment. The PTS is essential for many other processes.’ It is required for chemotaxis [1, 2] toward its substrates, and it regulates the transcription of operons necessary for the catabolism of certain non-PTS sugars, the subject of this review. These diverse functions have led to intensive study of the PTS at the biochemical and genetic levels, and it is the subject of many recent reviews The present brief description is written principally for the general reader and emphasizes only the signal-transducing function of the PTS in “diauxie.”
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