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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2002, p. 5545-5553, Vol. 184, No. 20
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.20.5545-5553.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Mutation in yaaT Leads to Significant Inhibition of Phosphorelay during Sporulation in Bacillus subtilis

Shigeo Hosoya,¹ Kei Asai,^2,3 Naotake Ogasawara,² Michio Takeuchi,¹ and Tsutomu Sato^1*

International Environmental and Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509,¹ Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Takayama, Ikoma, Nara 630-0101,² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Saitama, Japan³

Received 15 March 2002/ Accepted 18 July 2002

In the course of a Bacillus subtilis functional genomics project which involved screening for sporulation genes, we identified an open reading frame, yaaT, whose disruptant exhibits a sporulation defect. Twenty-four hours after the initiation of sporulation, most cells of the yaaT mutant exhibited stage 0 of sporulation, indicating that the yaaT mutation blocks sporulation at an early stage. Furthermore, the mutation in yaaT led to a significant decrease in transcription from a promoter controlled by Spo0A, a key response regulator required for the initiation of sporulation. However, neither the level of transcription of spo0A, the activity of ^H, which transcribes spo0A, nor the amount of Spo0A protein was severely affected by the mutation in yaaT. Bypassing the phosphorelay by introducing an spo0A mutation (sof-1) into the yaaT mutant suppressed the sporulation defect, suggesting that the yaaT mutation interferes with the phosphorelay process comprising Spo0F, Spo0B, and histidine kinases. We also observed that mutation of spo0E, which encodes the phosphatase that dephosphorylates Spo0A-P, suppressed the sporulation defect in the yaaT mutant. These results strongly suggest that yaaT plays a significant role in the transduction of signals to the phosphorelay for initiation of sporulation. Micrographs indicated that YaaT-green fluorescent protein localizes to the peripheral membrane, as well as to the septum, during sporulation.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: International Environmental and Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan. Phone: 81-423-67-5706. Fax: 81-423-67-5715. E-mail: subtilis{at}cc.tuat.ac.jp.

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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2002, p. 5545-5553, Vol. 184, No. 20
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.20.5545-5553.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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