Team:UC Davis/wiring pH sensor

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Wiring the pH sensor into our system:

Th pH sensor:

            ChvG is a suspected pH sensor and histidine kinase and ChvI is its cognate response regulator (2). Together they are believed to sense extracellular pH between 5.5 to 7 and relaying this signal to regulate the expression of key virulence related genes. (2)
In our design, we used this two-component system from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, to regulate the expression of select target genes.

Possibility of Cross Talk:
            Bacteria have numerous related kinase/response regulated based, two component systems (5). For instance, the Agrobacterium tumefaciens genome is known to contain at least 25 two-component pathways (2).Therefore, there are possibilities of crosstalk between some genes present in E. coli that have the same mechanism as ChvI/ChvG system. In fact, there is evidence supporting that ChvI can complement a PhoB deletion in E. coli. (3) Therefore it is highly likely that there is a possibility of cross talk between our new sensory systems elements, present in E. coli. Many protein-protein interactions are not fully understood (5), which makes this project more challenging but very interesting.