Sequence analysis of GerM and SpoVS, uncharacterized bacterial 'sporulation' proteins with widespread phylogenetic distribution.

ABSTRACT:

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Sporulation in low-G+C gram-positive bacteria (Firmicutes) is an important survival mechanism that involves up to 150 genes, acting in a highly regulated manner. Many sporulation genes have close homologs in non-sporulating bacteria, including cyanobacteria, proteobacteria and spirochaetes, indicating that their products play a wider biological role. Most of them have been characterized as regulatory proteins or enzymes of peptidoglycan turnover; functions of others remain unknown but they are likely to have a general role in cell division and/or development. We have compiled a list of such widely conserved sporulation and germination proteins with poorly characterized functions, ranked them by the width of their phylogenetic distribution, and performed detailed sequence

SUBMITTER: Rigden DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2732212 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature