Summary
The E-σ37 gene ctc was inactivated by a site-specific insertion into the Bacillus subtilis chromosome. The resulting mutation inhibited sporulation by 95% at elevated temperatures (48° C). If the ctc - mutation is placed in a strain that carries a mutation in the closely linked but distinct spoVC gene, ctc now affects both growth and sporulation at elevated temperatures. Growth of the ctc - spoVC285 strain was transiently inhibited when exponentially growing cultures were shifted from 37° C to 48° C. A similar, but less pronounced “growth lag”, was also seen in a B. subtilis strain carrying only the spoVC-285 mutation. This finding suggests that both the ctc and spoVC products function in vegetatively growing B. subtilis.
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Communicated by H. Hennecke
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Truitt, C.L., Weaver, E.A. & Haldenwang, W.G. Effects on growth and sporulation of inactivation of a Bacillus subtilis gene (ctc) transcribed in vitro by minor vegetative cell RNA polymerases (E-σ37, E-σ32). Molec. Gen. Genet. 212, 166–171 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00322460
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00322460