Ser/Thr phosphorylation as a regulatory mechanism in bacteria

•Ser/Thr phosphorylation is involved in the regulation of cell wall synthesis and translation.•Ser/Thr kinases phosphorylate elements of two-component systems.•Ser/Thr kinases phosphorylate other known transcriptional regulatory mechanisms.

This review will discuss some recent work describing the role of Ser/Thr phosphorylation as a post-translational mechanism of regulation in bacteria. I will discuss the interaction between bacterial eukaryotic-like Ser/Thr kinases (eSTKs) and two-component systems as well as hints as to physiological function of eSTKs and their cognate eukaryotic-like phosphatases (eSTPs). In particular, I will highlight the role of eSTKs and eSTPs in the regulation of peptidoglycan metabolism and protein synthesis. In addition, I will discuss how data from phosphoproteomic surveys suggest that Ser/Thr phosphorylation plays a much more significant physiological role than would be predicted simply based on in vivo and in vitro analyses of individual kinases.