ComX

• Description: competence pheromone precursor, transfers cell density signal to ComP; triggers the production of surfactin
  
  

Gene name	comX
Synonyms
Essential	no
Product	competence pheromone precursor
Function	quorum sensing
MW, pI	6 kDa, 4.358
Gene length, protein length	165 bp, 55 aa
Immediate neighbours	comP, comQ
Get the DNA and protein sequences (Barbe et al., 2009)
Genetic context This image was kindly provided by SubtiList

Categories containing this gene/protein

genetic competence, quorum sensing

The gene

Basic information

• Locus tag: BSU31700

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: is synthesized as an inactive precursor, cleaved, and modified (isoprenylated) by ComQ prior to excretion

• Cofactor(s):

• Effectors of protein activity:

• Interactions:

• Localization:
  • secreted (according to Swiss-Prot)

Database entries

• Structure:

• UniProt: P45453

• KEGG entry: [3]

• E.C. number:

Expression and regulation

• Operon: comQ-comX PubMed

• Expression browser: comX PubMed

• Sigma factor: SigA PubMed

• Regulation:

• Regulatory mechanism:

• Additional information:

Biological materials

• Mutant:

• Expression vector:

• lacZ fusion:

• GFP fusion:

• two-hybrid system:

• Antibody:

Your additional remarks

The ComX --> surfactin signaling pathway is an example for paracrine signaling in bacteria

References

Reviews

Elizabeth Anne Shank, Roberto Kolter
Extracellular signaling and multicellularity in Bacillus subtilis.
Curr Opin Microbiol: 2011, 14(6);741-7
[PubMed:22024380] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (I p)

Original publications

Additional publications: PubMed

Ju Jung, Kyung Ok Yu, Ahmad Bazli Ramzi, Se Hoon Choe, Seung Wook Kim, Sung Ok Han
Improvement of surfactin production in Bacillus subtilis using synthetic wastewater by overexpression of specific extracellular signaling peptides, comX and phrC.
Biotechnol Bioeng: 2012, 109(9);2349-56
[PubMed:22511326] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (I p)