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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Mapping Bacterial Functional Networks and Pathways in Escherichia Coli using Synthetic Genetic Arrays
Published on: November 12, 2012
Cloning, nucleotide sequence, and regulation of katE encoding a sigma B-dependent catalase in Bacillus subtilis
S Engelmann1, C Lindner, M Hecker
1Institut für Mikrobiologie und Molekularbiologie, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität, Greifswald, Germany.
Abstract:
A sigma B-dependent stress gene of Bacillus subtilis was localized downstream of the licS gene. The predicted amino acid sequence exhibited a significant similarity to the sequence of the katE-encoded catalase HPII of Escherichia coli, and we designated it the open reading frame katE. In a B. subtilis katE mutant, catalase 2 could not be detected. The amount of katE-specific mRNA was increased after heat, salt, or ethanol stress or after glucose starvation in a sigma B-dependent manner. As in E. coli, the transcription of the katE gene in B. subtilis was unaffected by the addition of H2O2 to exponentially growing cells. In contrast, the katA gene encoding catalase 1 of B. subtilis showed an induction pattern different from that of katE; katA expression was strongly increased by oxidative stress. The similarity between E. coli sigma S-dependent genes and B. subtilis sigma B-dependent genes suggests that both may confer multiple stress resistance to stationary-phase cells.
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