Regulation of transcription of the Bacillus subtilis spoIIA locus

Abstract

The start point of spoIIA transcription was defined by primer extension analysis with two separate primers. It was 27 bases upstream from the putative translation initiation codon of the first open reading frame in the spoIIA locus. A region extending at least 52 bases upstream from the transcription start site was necessary for transcription, as determined with integrative plasmids. Transcription of spoIIA was dependent on the spoOA, spoOB, and spoOF loci, but this dependency was partly overcome by increasing the number of copies of the spoIIA promoter region. Transcription of spoIIA was absolutely dependent on the spoOH locus, which codes for the RNA polymerase sigma factor sigma H. Regions approximately -35 and -10 upstream from the spoIIA transcription start site showed sequence homology with Bacillus subtilis sigma H promoters.