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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1979 Feb;76(2):842–846. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.2.842

Apparent dependence of sporulation on synthesis of highly phosphorylated nucleotides in Bacillus subtilis

H J Rhaese 1, R Groscurth 1
PMCID: PMC383069  PMID: 16592624

Abstract

Bacillus subtilis contains an enzyme that synthesizes the highly phosphorylated nucleotide adenosine 5′,3′(2′)-bis(triphosphate), abbreviated p3Ap3. This enzyme can be demonstrated to be present in the cytoplasmic membrane of B. subtilis at all stages of growth and development. During vegetative growth its enzymatic activity is inhibited by phosphorylated metabolites of energy-rich carbon sources, as was shown with the aid of conditional sporulation mutants. The finding that a temperature-sensitive sporulation mutant with a mutation in the spoOF gene, an early sporulation gene, shows a temperature-sensitive activity of p3Ap3-synthetase indicates that p3Ap3 plays an important role in sporulation, probably initiation of sporulation.

Keywords: adenosine-5′,3′(2′)-bis(triphosphate) synthetase; inhibition by phosphorylated carbon metabolites; temperature-sensitive mutants; electron microscopy; sensor model of initiation of differentiation

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Selected References

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