Two-component system - Escherichia coli O111:H- 11128 (EHEC)

Two-component signal transduction systems enable bacteria to sense, respond, and adapt to changes in their environment or in their intracellular state. Each two-component system consists of a sensor protein-histidine kinase (HK) and a response regulator (RR). In the prototypical two-component pathway, the sensor HK phosphorylates its own conserved His residue in response to a signal(s) in the environment. Subsequently, the phosphoryl group of HK is transferred onto a specific Asp residue on the RR. The activated RR can then effect changes in cellular physiology, often by regulating gene expression. Two-component pathways thus often enable cells to sense and respond to stimuli by inducing changes in transcription.