spo0H: A Developmental Regulatory Gene for Promoter Utilization in Bacillus subtilis (original) (raw)

1. P. Zuber and
2. R. Losick
3. Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Excerpt

Cells of the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis are induced to enter an elaborate cycle of morphological differentiation in response to conditions in which certain essential nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorous, become limiting for growth (for reviews, see Losick and Youngman 1984; Youngman et al. 1985). This developmental process culminates in the formation of a dormant cell type known as the spore or more precisely the endospore, a complex multilayered structure that is able to resist extremes of environmental conditions. Under conditions that support germination, the endospore is rapidly converted back to a vegetative cell. Figure 1 is an electron micrograph of a germinating spore in which a vegetative cell is emerging from the broken shell of the spore casing (the protein layers that comprise the spore coat).

The formation of the endospore and its transformation into a growing cell is governed by a large number of genes known...