Activity of ribosomal and tRNA promoters of Bacillus subtilis during sporulation

The rrnB operon in Bacillus subtilis includes 21 tRNA genes downstream of the ribosomal genes. In addition to the dual promoters upstream of these ribosomal genes, a second promoter is found within the tRNA gene region. In this study, these two promoter regions were inserted before the lacZ gene and each was integrated as a single-copy into the B subtilis chromosome to examine their activity during sporulation. Both promoters exhibited similar strength and temporal downregulation from vegetative growth through t3 of sporulation. At t3, transcription from both promoters was approximately 20% of that in logarithmic growth. No obvious function of the second promoter is evident except to boost transcription of downstream genes. This function may be important because the ribosomal promoters of rrnB are weak relative to other ribosomal promoters. For instance, the rrnO promoters were much stronger than the rrnB ribosomal promoters and considerably more active at t3. Thus, all ribosomal promoters are not of the same strength nor are they transcriptionally downregulated to the same extent during sporulation. However, both the rRNA and tRNA promoters in the rrnB operon are similar in strength and downregulation.