This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental material Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Perez, A. R. Articles by Pogliano, K. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Perez, A. R. Articles by Pogliano, K.

Suppression of Engulfment Defects in Bacillus subtilis by Elevated Expression of the Motility Regulon

Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0377

Received 29 August 2005/ Accepted 5 November 2005

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 ^D-directed gene expression, cell separation, and autolysis. Elevating ^D activity by eliminating the anti- factor FlgM also suppresses spoIIB spoVG, and both flgM and spoVS mutations cause continued expression of the ^D 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.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.