Journal of Bacteriology, December 2001, p. 7318-7328, Vol. 183, No. 24
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.24.7318-7328.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-81011; Affymax Research Institute, Santa Clara, California 950512; and Molecular Microbiology Department, Glaxo Wellcome, SA, C/Severo Ochoa, 28760 Tres Cantos, Spain3
Received 10 July 2001/Accepted 12 September 2001
In response to heat stress, Bacillus subtilis
activates the transcription of well over 100 different genes. Many of
these genes are members of a general stress response regulon controlled by the secondary sigma factor,
B, while others are under
control of the HrcA or CtsR heat shock regulators. We have used DNA
microarrays to monitor the global transcriptional response to heat
shock. We find strong induction of known
B-dependent
genes with a characteristic rapid induction followed by a return to
near prestimulus levels. The HrcA and CtsR regulons are also induced,
but with somewhat slower kinetics. Analysis of DNA sequences proximal
to newly identified heat-induced genes leads us to propose ~70
additional members of the
B regulon. We have also
identified numerous heat-induced genes that are not members of known
heat shock regulons. Notably, we observe very strong induction of
arginine biosynthesis and transport operons. Induction of several genes
was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. In addition,
the transcriptional responses measured by microarray hybridization
compare favorably with the numerous previous studies of heat shock in
this organism. Since many different conditions elicit both specific and
general stress responses, knowledge of the heat-induced general stress
response reported here will be helpful for interpreting future
microarray studies of other stress responses.
Present address: Microarray Research Facility, NIAID/NIH,
Rockville, MD 20852.
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