A small gene, designated comS, located within the coding region of the fourth amino acid-activation domain of srfA, is required for competence development in Bacillus subtilis.
The valine-activation domain-encoding portion of the srfA locus (srfA-d4) is not only involved in the non-ribosomal synthesis of surfactin, but is also required for the regulation of competence development. In this study we show that impairment of the adenylation activity of the valine-activating domain did not affect competence development. Deletion analysis and complementation studies delineated the competence-required portion of srfA-d4 to a 168 bp fragment, which contains a small open reading frame (ORF), designated comS, encoding a polypeptide of 46 amino acids, embedded within, but translated in, a frame different from that of srfA-d4. Introduction of an amber mutation in the comS-coding frame prevented competence development, demonstrating the involvement of comS in this prokaryotic specialization process.
Hamoen
L W
LW
Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, Haren, The Netherlands.
Eshuis
H
H
Jongbloed
J
J
Venema
G
G
van Sinderen
D
D
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D049148:Aminoacylation / Q000235:genetics*; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D055666:Lipopeptides; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D010453:Peptide Synthases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D017384:Sequence Deletion / Q000235:genetics; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C093539:ComS protein, Bacillus subtilis; D055666:Lipopeptides; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C009365:surfactin peptide; D010453:Peptide Synthases; C069542:surfactin synthetase