You can find annotated E. coli O26 genome here http://www.genome.jp/kegg-bin/sho

Question

You can find annotated E. coli O26 genome here http://www.genome.jp/kegg-bin/show_organism?menu_type=pathway_maps&org=eoj. Using the information found from this website, answer the following questions. Note: Genes present in E. coli O26 genome are highlighted in green. Genes absent in the genome are not highlighted.

In the absence of glucose, E. coli O26 can utilize arabinose, a five-carbon monosaccharide. Among the transport mechanisms you have learned in this class, which is used to import arabinose by E. coli O26?

In the absence of glucose, E. coli O26 can utilize arabinose, a five-carbon monosaccharide. Among the transport mechanisms you have learned in this class, which is used to import arabinose by E. coli O26?

Explanation / Answer

The E. coli cells generally use ABC transporter system in order to transport arabinose across their cell membrane. The ABC system or the ATP-binding cassette is a membrane bound system of channel proteins which utilize hydrolysis of ATP to assist polarization as well as tranport of the materials across the cell membranes. Here, it must be carefully noted that the process utilized by ABC transporter is ATP-dependent in nature. Hence, arabinose transport as well is an ATP-dependent process and this is why the total cellular pool of this sugar is tightly regulated by cells using down-stream signalling mechanisms.

Usually, there are some conserved motifs onto the ABC system which interact with ATP in presence of water molecule to hydrolyse the ATP and the resultant energy is transformed to obtain a conformational change in the arabinose sugar by its polarization. Hence, a specific type of ABC-subsystem called AraFGH is utilized by the cells to specifically transport the arabinose sugar in the cells. Hence, the subclass AraFGH belonging to the ABC transporters helps in transport of arabinose in the cells.

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