title: Suppression of engulfment defects in bacillus subtilis by elevated expression of the motility regulon.
abstract: During Bacillus subtilis sporulation, the transient engulfment defect of spoIIB strains is enhanced by spoVG null mutations and suppressed by spoVS null mutations. These mutations have opposite effects on expression of the motility regulon, as the spoVG mutation reduces and the spoVS mutation increases sigmaD-directed gene expression, cell separation, and autolysis. Elevating sigmaD activity by eliminating the anti-sigma factor FlgM also suppresses spoIIB spoVG, and both flgM and spoVS mutations cause continued expression of the sigmaD regulon during sporulation. We propose that peptidoglycan hydrolases induced during motility can substitute for sporulation-specific hydrolases during engulfment. We find that sporulating cells are heterogeneous in their expression of the motility regulon, which could result in phenotypic variation between individual sporulating cells.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0377, USA.
authors.forename: Ana R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.forename: Angelica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abanes-De Mello
authors.forename: Kit
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pogliano
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D005407:Flagella / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D009154:Mutation; D018085:Regulon / Q000502:physiology*; D012808:Sigma Factor / Q000502:physiology*; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012808:Sigma Factor; C030069:spore-specific proteins, Bacillus; C071266:FlgM protein, Bacteria