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J Bacteriol, May 1998, p. 2549-2555, Vol. 180, No. 9
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Regulation of a New Cell Wall Hydrolase Gene, cwlF, Which Affects Cell Separation in Bacillus subtilis

Shu Ishikawa, Yoshiko Hara, Ryo Ohnishi, and Junichi Sekiguchi*

Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1 Tokida, Ueda-shi, Nagano 386, Japan

Received 29 September 1997/Accepted 15 February 1998

Bacillus subtilis produces a 35-kDa cell wall hydrolase, CwlF, during vegetative growth. The CwlF protein was extracted from B. subtilis cwlB sigD mutant cells and separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. N-terminal amino acid sequencing revealed that its sequence is completely identical to that of the internal region of the papQ gene product. Disruption of the papQ gene in the B. subtilis chromosome led to the complete loss of CwlF, indicating that papQ is identical to cwlF. CwlF exhibits high sequence similarity to the p60 proteins of Listeria species, NlpC proteins of Escherichia coli and Haemophilus influenzae, and Enp2 protein of Bacillus sphaericus. The beta -galactosidase activity of the cwlF-lacZ transcriptional fusion and Northern blot analysis of the cwlF gene indicated that the gene is expressed as a monocistronic operon during the exponential growth phase, and primer extension analysis suggested that the cwlF gene is transcribed mainly by Esigma A RNA polymerase and weakly by Esigma H RNA polymerase. While the cells of the cwlF-deficient mutant were about twice as long as those of the wild-type strain, the cwlF sigD double mutant cells exhibited extraordinary microfiber formation, in contrast to the filamentation of the sigD mutant. The CwlF production was not affected by the pleiotropic mutations flaD1 and degU32(Hy), which endow cells with the ability of extensive filamentation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1 Tokida, Ueda-shi, Nagano 386, Japan. Phone: 81-268-21-5344. Fax: 81-268-21-5331. E-mail: jsekigu{at}giptc.shinshu-u.ac.jp.

J Bacteriol, May 1998, p. 2549-2555, Vol. 180, No. 9
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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