Given a context passage, generate a question from the passage such that its answer is shortest continous span from the passage.

Let me give you an example: In 1582 the united provinces invited francis, duke of anjou to lead them; but after a failed attempt to take antwerp in 1583, the duke left the netherlands again. after the assassination of william of orange (10 july 1584), both henry iii of france and elizabeth i of england declined the offer of sovereignty. however, the latter agreed to turn the united provinces into a protectorate of england (treaty of nonsuch, 1585), and sent the earl of leicester as governor-general. this was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy. the union of utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the republic of the seven united provinces, which was not recognized by the spanish empire until the peace of westphalia in 1648.
The answer to this example can be: In what year did francis, duke of anjou leave the netherlands?
Here is why: The generated question is perfect. Because the question is based on second sentence of the input passage and its answer is 1583.

OK. solve this:
AtxA, a unique regulatory protein of unknown molecular function, positively controls expression of the major virulence genes of Bacillus anthracis. The 475 amino acid sequence of AtxA reveals DNA binding motifs and regions similar to proteins associated with the phosphoenolpyruvate: carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS). We used strains producing native and functional epitope-tagged AtxA proteins to examine protein-protein interactions in cell lysates and in solutions of purified protein. Co-affinity purification, non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and bis(maleimido)hexane (BMH) cross-linking experiments revealed AtxA homo-multimers. Dimers were the most abundant species. BMH cross-links available cysteines within 13 A. To localize interaction sites, six AtxA mutants containing distinct CysSer substitutions were tested for multimerization and cross-linking. All mutants multimerized, but one mutation, C402S, prevented cross-linking. Thus, BMH uses C402 to make the inter-molecular bond between AtxA proteins, but C402 is not required for protein-protein interaction. C402 is in a region bearing amino acid similarity to Enzyme IIB proteins of the PTS. The AtxA EIIB motif may function in protein oligomerization. Finally, cultures grown with elevated CO(2) /bicarbonate exhibited increased AtxA dimer/monomer ratios and increased AtxA activity, relative to cultures grown without added CO(2) /bicarbonate, suggesting that this host-associated signal enhances AtxA function by shifting the dimer/monomer equilibrium towards the dimeric state.
Answer:
Which metabolite activates AtxA?