Summary
Temperature-sensitive mutants defective in bacterial spore outgrowth have been isolated and in all cases examined have also been found to be blocked in vegetative growth at the restrictive temperature. Four of these mutants have been studied to determine the stage at which outgrowth is blocked, the period of development when they are sensitive to the restrictive condition, and their ability to undergo macromolecular synthesis. These mutants were blocked at various stages of outgrowth during swelling and elongation. Once the point in development had been reached at which they were sensitive to the restrictive condition, they remained sensitive at all further stages of development. One very interesting mutant (ts 8) showed a constant time lag of one hour between the shift to the restrictive condition and expression of the resulting lesion, provided that the mutant was maintained for that time at the restrictive temperature. None of the mutants responded to diffusible substrates produced by the wild-type during germination and outgrowth.
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Communicated by Ch. Auerbach
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Dawes, I.W., Halvorson, H.O. Temperature-sensitive mutants of Bacillus subtilis defective in spore outgrowth. Molec. Gen. Genet. 131, 147–157 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00266150
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00266150