Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1987 Jul;169(7):3329–3339. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.7.3329-3339.1987

Organization and regulation of an operon that encodes a sporulation-essential sigma factor in Bacillus subtilis.

T J Kenney, C P Moran Jr
PMCID: PMC212387  PMID: 2439490

Abstract

Deletion of sigE, the structural gene for the sporulation-induced RNA polymerase sigma factor, sigma E, prevented endospore formation by Bacillus subtilis. The effects of integration of plasmids into the sigE region of the chromosome and the use of complementation analyses demonstrated that sigE is part of an operon that includes a promoter-proximal gene, spoIIGA, that is essential for sporulation. Gene fusions to the promoter of this operon, spoIIG, demonstrated that transcription from this promoter is induced at the beginning of sporulation and is dependent on several spoO genes.

Full text

PDF
3329

Images in this article

3333Image
on p.3333
3338Image
on p.3338

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Brickell P. M., Latchman D. S., Murphy D., Willison K., Rigby P. W. Activation of a Qa/Tla class I major histocompatibility antigen gene is a general feature of oncogenesis in the mouse. Nature. 1983 Dec 22;306(5945):756–760. doi: 10.1038/306756a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Burton Z. F., Gross C. A., Watanabe K. K., Burgess R. R. The operon that encodes the sigma subunit of RNA polymerase also encodes ribosomal protein S21 and DNA primase in E. coli K12. Cell. 1983 Feb;32(2):335–349. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90453-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Carter H. L., 3rd, Moran C. P., Jr New RNA polymerase sigma factor under spo0 control in Bacillus subtilis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Dec;83(24):9438–9442. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.24.9438. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Errington J., Mandelstam J. Variety of sporulation phenotypes resulting from mutations in a single regulatory locus, spoIIA, in Bacillus subtilis. J Gen Microbiol. 1983 Jul;129(7):2091–2101. doi: 10.1099/00221287-129-7-2091. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Feinberg A. P., Vogelstein B. A technique for radiolabeling DNA restriction endonuclease fragments to high specific activity. Anal Biochem. 1983 Jul 1;132(1):6–13. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(83)90418-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Ferrari F. A., Nguyen A., Lang D., Hoch J. A. Construction and properties of an integrable plasmid for Bacillus subtilis. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jun;154(3):1513–1515. doi: 10.1128/jb.154.3.1513-1515.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Haldenwang W. G., Lang N., Losick R. A sporulation-induced sigma-like regulatory protein from B. subtilis. Cell. 1981 Feb;23(2):615–624. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90157-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Haldenwang W. G., Losick R. A modified RNA polymerase transcribes a cloned gene under sporulation control in Bacillus subtilis. Nature. 1979 Nov 15;282(5736):256–260. doi: 10.1038/282256a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Igo M. M., Losick R. Regulation of a promoter that is utilized by minor forms of RNA polymerase holoenzyme in Bacillus subtilis. J Mol Biol. 1986 Oct 20;191(4):615–624. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(86)90449-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. King T. C., Sirdeskmukh R., Schlessinger D. Nucleolytic processing of ribonucleic acid transcripts in procaryotes. Microbiol Rev. 1986 Dec;50(4):428–451. doi: 10.1128/mr.50.4.428-451.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Losick R., Youngman P., Piggot P. J. Genetics of endospore formation in Bacillus subtilis. Annu Rev Genet. 1986;20:625–669. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ge.20.120186.003205. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Macdonald P. M., Kutter E., Mosig G. Regulation of a bacteriophage T4 late gene, soc, which maps in an early region. Genetics. 1984 Jan;106(1):17–27. doi: 10.1093/genetics/106.1.17. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Piggot P. J., Curtis C. A., de Lencastre H. Use of integrational plasmid vectors to demonstrate the polycistronic nature of a transcriptional unit (spoIIA) required for sporulation of Bacillus subtilis. J Gen Microbiol. 1984 Aug;130(8):2123–2136. doi: 10.1099/00221287-130-8-2123. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Prentki P., Krisch H. M. In vitro insertional mutagenesis with a selectable DNA fragment. Gene. 1984 Sep;29(3):303–313. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90059-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ray C., Hay R. E., Carter H. L., Moran C. P., Jr Mutations that affect utilization of a promoter in stationary-phase Bacillus subtilis. J Bacteriol. 1985 Aug;163(2):610–614. doi: 10.1128/jb.163.2.610-614.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Ray G. L., Haldenwang W. G. Isolation of Bacillus subtilis genes transcribed in vitro and in vivo by a major sporulation-induced, DNA-dependent RNA polymerase. J Bacteriol. 1986 May;166(2):472–478. doi: 10.1128/jb.166.2.472-478.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Rong S., Rosenkrantz M. S., Sonenshein A. L. Transcriptional control of the Bacillus subtilis spoIID gene. J Bacteriol. 1986 Mar;165(3):771–779. doi: 10.1128/jb.165.3.771-779.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Segall J., Losick R. Cloned Bacillus subtilis DNA containing a gene that is activated early during sporulation. Cell. 1977 Aug;11(4):751–761. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(77)90289-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Stragier P., Bouvier J., Bonamy C., Szulmajster J. A developmental gene product of Bacillus subtilis homologous to the sigma factor of Escherichia coli. Nature. 1984 Nov 22;312(5992):376–378. doi: 10.1038/312376a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Weir J., Dubnau E., Ramakrishna N., Smith I. Bacillus subtilis spo0H gene. J Bacteriol. 1984 Feb;157(2):405–412. doi: 10.1128/jb.157.2.405-412.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Yanisch-Perron C., Vieira J., Messing J. Improved M13 phage cloning vectors and host strains: nucleotide sequences of the M13mp18 and pUC19 vectors. Gene. 1985;33(1):103–119. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(85)90120-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Zuber P., Losick R. Role of AbrB in Spo0A- and Spo0B-dependent utilization of a sporulation promoter in Bacillus subtilis. J Bacteriol. 1987 May;169(5):2223–2230. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.5.2223-2230.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Zuber P., Losick R. Use of a lacZ fusion to study the role of the spoO genes of Bacillus subtilis in developmental regulation. Cell. 1983 Nov;35(1):275–283. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90230-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES