ComK

• Description: competence transcription factor (CTF)
  
  

Gene name	comK
Synonyms
Essential	no
Product	competence transcription factor (CTF)
Function	regulation of competence and DNA uptake
Gene expression levels in SubtiExpress: comK
Interactions involving this protein in SubtInteract: ComK
Metabolic function and regulation of this protein in SubtiPathways: comK
MW, pI	22 kDa, 7.669
Gene length, protein length	576 bp, 192 aa
Immediate neighbours	yhzC, yhxD
Sequences	Protein DNA DNA_with_flanks
Genetic context This image was kindly provided by SubtiList
Expression at a glance   PubMed

Categories containing this gene/protein

genetic competence, transcription factors and their control, phosphoproteins

This gene is a member of the following regulons

AbrB regulon, CodY regulon, ComK regulon, DegU regulon, Rok regulon, Spo0A regulon

The gene

Basic information

• Locus tag: BSU10420

Phenotypes of a mutant

• no expression of competence genes, loss of genetic competence PubMed

Database entries

• DBTBS entry: [1]

• SubtiList entry: [2]

The protein

Basic information/ Evolution

• Catalyzed reaction/ biological activity:

• Protein family:

• Paralogous protein(s):

Extended information on the protein

• Kinetic information:

• Domains:

• Modification:
  • phosphorylated on Arg-65, Arg-157, Arg-161, Arg-165, Arg-186, and Arg-191 PubMed

• Cofactors:

• Effectors of protein activity:

• Interactions:
  • MecA-ComK PubMed

• Localization:

Database entries

• Structure:

• UniProt: P40396

• KEGG entry: [3]

• E.C. number:

Expression and regulation

• Operon: comK PubMed

• Expression browser: comK PubMed

• Sigma factor: SigA PubMed

• Regulation:
  • repressed by casamino acids PubMed
  • repressed by Rok PubMed
  • repressed during growth in the presence of branched chain amino acids (CodY) PubMed
  • repressed during logrithmic growth (AbrB) PubMed
  • induced at the entry to stationary phase (Spo0A-P) PubMed

• Regulatory mechanism:
  • Rok: transcription repression PubMed
  • CodY: transcription repression PubMed
  • AbrB: transcription repression PubMed
  • ComK: transcription activation (autoregulation) PubMed
  • DegU (non-phosphorylated form): transcription activation PubMed
  • Spo0A-P: transcription activation, acts as antagonist of Rok PubMed

• Additional information:
  • degraded by ClpC-ClpP (with MecA as adaptor protein) PubMed

Biological materials

• Mutant:
  • 1A871 (no resistance), PubMed, available at BGSC

• Expression vector: for expression, purification in E. coli with N-terminal His-tag, pRSETA available in Gerth lab

• lacZ fusion:

• GFP fusion:

• two-hybrid system:

• Antibody:

Labs working on this gene/protein

Oscar Kuipers, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Homepage

References

Reviews

Daniel Schultz, Peter G Wolynes, Eshel Ben Jacob, José N Onuchic
Deciding fate in adverse times: sporulation and competence in Bacillus subtilis.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A: 2009, 106(50);21027-34
[PubMed:19995980] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (I p)

Leendert W Hamoen, Gerard Venema, Oscar P Kuipers
Controlling competence in Bacillus subtilis: shared use of regulators.
Microbiology (Reading): 2003, 149(Pt 1);9-17
[PubMed:12576575] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (P p)

The ComK regulon

Mitsuo Ogura, Hirotake Yamaguchi, Kazuo Kobayashi, Naotake Ogasawara, Yasutaro Fujita, Teruo Tanaka
Whole-genome analysis of genes regulated by the Bacillus subtilis competence transcription factor ComK.
J Bacteriol: 2002, 184(9);2344-51
[PubMed:11948146] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (P p)

Randy M Berka, Jeanette Hahn, Mark Albano, Irena Draskovic, Marjan Persuh, Xianju Cui, Alan Sloma, William Widner, David Dubnau
Microarray analysis of the Bacillus subtilis K-state: genome-wide expression changes dependent on ComK.
Mol Microbiol: 2002, 43(5);1331-45
[PubMed:11918817] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (P p)