Investigating the mechanism of phosphate aquisition by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

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Phosphate is an essential nutrient that is found in lipids, nucleic acids, proteins and sugars and is also key to many biological reactions that require ATP and/or signaling pathways that exploit protein phosphorylation. Thus, bacteria utilize a global regulatory circuit, the Pho regulon, to manage intracellular bacterial phosphate homeostasis. The Pho regulon regulates the expression of key proteins involved in the acquisition of phosphate, including integral membrane proteins that play an important role in the transport of phosphate across lipid bilayers and into the cell. These membrane proteins also act as sensory proteins that interact with phosphate binding proteins to detect the levels of extracellular phosphate and in turn regulate their own expression through the Pho regulon. The Pho regulon pathway also controls many other gene networks including the expression and secretion of virulence factors in response to phosphate levels, thus this phosphate acquisition pathway in bacteria is extremely important.