WalK

• Description: two-component sensor kinase, controls cell wall metabolism, co-ordinates cell wall remodelling with cell division by controlling the transcription of genes for autolysins and their inhibitors
  
  

Gene name	walK
Synonyms	yycG
Essential	yes PubMed
Product	two-component sensor kinase (OmpR family)
Function	control of cell wall metabolism
MW, pI	69 kDa, 4.775
Gene length, protein length	1833 bp, 611 aa
Immediate neighbours	yycH, walR
Get the DNA and protein sequences (Barbe et al., 2009)
Genetic context This image was kindly provided by SubtiList

Categories containing this gene/protein

cell wall/ other, protein modification, transcription factors and their control, essential genes, membrane proteins, phosphoproteins

The gene

Basic information

• Locus tag: BSU40400

Phenotypes of a mutant

essential PubMed

Database entries

• DBTBS entry: [1]

• SubtiList entry: [2]

The protein

Basic information/ Evolution

• Catalyzed reaction/ biological activity: autophosphorylation, phosphorylation of WalR

• Protein family: two-component sensor kinase of the OmpR family

• Paralogous protein(s):

Extended information on the protein

• Kinetic information:

• Domains: two transmembrane segments, C-terminal histidine phosphotransferase domain

• Modification: autophosphorylation on a His residue

• Cofactor(s):

• Effectors of protein activity:

• Interactions: WalK-WalR, WalK-YycH PubMed, WalK-YycI PubMed, WalK-DivIB PubMed, WalK-FtsL PubMed, WalK-PbpB PubMed

• Localization: cell membrane PubMed, part of the division septum in growing cells, interacts with the divisome PubMed

Database entries

• Structure:

• UniProt: Q45614

• KEGG entry: [3]

• E.C. number:

Expression and regulation

• Operon: walR-walK-yycH-yycI-walJ-yyxA PubMed

• Sigma factor:

• Regulation: expressed during vegetative growth, repressed during stationary phase PubMed

• Regulatory mechanism:

• Additional information:

Biological materials

• Mutant:

• Expression vector:

• lacZ fusion:

• GFP fusion:

• two-hybrid system:

• Antibody:

References

Reviews

Sarah Dubrac, Paola Bisicchia, Kevin M Devine, Tarek Msadek
A matter of life and death: cell wall homeostasis and the WalKR (YycGF) essential signal transduction pathway.
Mol Microbiol: 2008, 70(6);1307-22
[PubMed:19019149] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (I p)

Sarah Dubrac, Tarek Msadek
Tearing down the wall: peptidoglycan metabolism and the WalK/WalR (YycG/YycF) essential two-component system.
Adv Exp Med Biol: 2008, 631;214-28
[PubMed:18792692] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (P p)

Malcolm E Winkler, James A Hoch
Essentiality, bypass, and targeting of the YycFG (VicRK) two-component regulatory system in gram-positive bacteria.
J Bacteriol: 2008, 190(8);2645-8
[PubMed:18245295] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (I p)

C Fabret, V A Feher, J A Hoch
Two-component signal transduction in Bacillus subtilis: how one organism sees its world.
J Bacteriol: 1999, 181(7);1975-83
[PubMed:10094672] [WorldCat.org] [DOI] (P p)