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. 1974 Dec;71(12):4860–4863. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.12.4860

Chloramphenicol Restores Sigma Factor Activity to Sporulating Bacillus subtilis

Jacqueline Segall 1, Robert Tjian 1, Janice Pero 1, Richard Losick 1
PMCID: PMC433998  PMID: 4216024

Abstract

The σ subunit of RNA polymerase from sporulating Bacillus subtilis is markedly inhibited in its ability to direct active transcription of phage ϕe DNA in vitro. Treatment of sporulating bacteria with chloramphenicol rapidly restores σ activity, suggesting that sporulating cells contain an inhibitor of σ that is physiologically unstable or that becomes unstable after drug treatment. The hypothetical inhibitor is depleted exponentially with an apparent half-life of 11 min at 37°.

Keywords: transcription by phage ϕe, sigma subunit of RNA polymerase

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Selected References

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

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