Analysis of yaaH mRNA by Northern hybridization. (A) Genome structure surrounding yaaH and the sizes of the ORFs. (B) Northern hybridization detecting the transcript of yaaH. Lanes: M, RNA molecular weight markers (digoxigenin labeled; 0.3 to 7.4 kb; Boehringer); 1 through 10, total RNA isolated from strain 168. T, harvesting times of cells, i.e., hours after the end of the exponential phase of growth. (C) Transcription of yaaH in strain 168 (spo+) (W.T.) (lanes 1 and 2) and in spoIIAC (SigF−) (lanes 3 and 4), spoIIGAB (SigE−) (lanes 5 and 6), spoIIIG (SigG−) (lanes 7 and 8), and spoIVCB (SigK−) (lanes 9 and 10) mutants analyzed by Northern hybridization. Total RNA was prepared from the cells at T4 (lanes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9) and T6 (lanes 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10), respectively. The arrowheads indicate the position of mRNA hybridizing with the digoxigenin-labeled RNA probe.