Cell division machinery drives cell-specific gene activation during differentiation in Bacillus subtilis.

ABSTRACT: When faced with starvation, the bacterium Bacillus subtilis transforms itself into a dormant cell type called a "spore". Sporulation initiates with an asymmetric division event, which requires the relocation of the core divisome components FtsA and FtsZ, after which the sigma factor σ^F is exclusively activated in the smaller daughter cell. Compartment-specific activation of σ^F requires the SpoIIE phosphatase, which displays a biased localization on one side of the asymmetric division septum and associates with the structural protein DivIVA, but the mechanism by which this preferential localization is achieved is unclear. Here, we isolated a variant of DivIVA that indiscriminately activates σ^F in both daughter cells due to promiscuous localization of

SUBMITTER: Chareyre S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10990147 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature