Systematic nomenclature for GGDEF and EAL domain-containing Cyclic di-GMP turnover proteins of Escherichia coli

In recent years, Escherichia coli has served as one of a handful of model bacterial species for studying c-di-GMP signaling. The widely used E. coli K-12 laboratory strains possesses 29 genes encoding proteins with GGDEF and/or EAL domains, which include 12 diguanylate cyclases (DGC), 13 c-di-GMP-specific phosphodiesterases (PDE) and four 'degenerate' enzymatically inactive proteins. In addition, six new GGDEF/EAL domain-encoding genes, which encode two DGCs and four PDEs, have recently been found in genomic analyses of commensal and pathogenic E. coli strains. As a group of researchers who have been studying the molecular mechanisms and/or the genomic basis of c-di-GMP signaling in E. coli, we now propose a general and systematic dgc and pde nomenclature for the enzymatically active GGDEF/EAL domain-encoding genes of this model species. This nomenclature is intuitive and easy to memorize and it can also be applied to additional genes and proteins that might be discovered in various strains of E. coli in future studies.