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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Microbiol. 2012 Jan 3;15(2):125–131. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2011.12.006

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Schematic representation of known mechanisms of STK-mediated regulation of gene expression. Prokaryotic serine/threonine kinases (STK) are membrane bound protein kinases that autophosphorylate in response to an activating environmental signal. This phosphate group can then be transferred to different targets within the bacterial cell to modulate gene expression. Known targets include A) transcriptional regulators (TR) which include DNA-binding response regulators (RR) of two-component systems (TCS), B) DNA-binding histone-like proteins (HU), and C) proteins of transcriptional or translational machinery. Phosphorylation of these targets has been shown to induce or repress gene expression allowing the bacteria to adapt appropriately to their changing external environment.