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Phosphate Starvation Induces the Sporulation Killing Factor of Bacillus subtilis

Nicholas E. E. Allenby,¹ Carys A. Watts,² Georg Homuth,^2, Zoltán Prágai,^2, Anil Wipat,³ Alan C. Ward,¹ and Colin R. Harwood^2*

School of Biology and Physcology,¹ Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences,² School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, United Kingdom³

Received 17 January 2006/ Accepted 2 May 2006

Bacillus subtilis produces and exports a peptide sporulation killing factor (SkfA) that induces lysis of sibling cells. skfA is part of the skf operon (skfA-H), which is responsible for immunity to SkfA, as well as for production and export of SkfA. Here we report that transcription of skfA is markedly induced when cells of B. subtilis are subjected to phosphate starvation. The role of PhoP in regulation of the skf operon was confirmed by in vitro gel shift assays, which showed that this operon is a new member of the PhoP regulon. A putative stem-loop structure in the skfA-skfB intergenic region is proposed to act as a stabilizer of an skfA-specific transcript.

Present address: Center for Functional Genomics, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Medical School, Walther-Rathenau-Str. 49A, D-17489 Greifswald, Germany.

Present address: DSM Nutritional Product Ltd., Department of Biotechnology, VFB, Bldg. 203/24A, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland.

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