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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Efficient Sporulation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a 96 Multiwell Format
Published on: September 17, 2016
Role of the sporulation protein BofA in regulating activation of the Bacillus subtilis developmental transcription
1Section on Microbial Genetics, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2785, USA. resnekov@biosun.harvard.edu
Abstract:
During sporulation, the Bacillus subtilis transcription factor sigmaK is activated by regulated proteolytic processing. I have used a system that facilitates the analysis of the contributions of a modified form of the processing enzyme, SpoIVFB-GFP, and the regulatory proteins BofA and SpoIVFA to the conversion of pro-sigmaK to sigmaK. The results show that in the presence of BofA, SpoIVFA levels increase by greater than 20-fold, SpoIVFA is substantially stabilized, and pro-sigmaK processing is inhibited. In addition, enhanced accumulation of the SpoIVFA protein in the absence of BofA (achieved through the use of an ftsH null mutation) substantially inhibits pro-sigmaK processing. These results suggest that during growth, increased accumulation of the SpoIVFA protein inhibits the activity of SpoIVFB-GFP and regulates the activation of sigmaK.
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