Spore control (Sco) mutations in Bacillus subtilis

Summary

Sporulation and the synthesis of alkaline protease are prevented when glucose is added to cultures of the wild type strain well before t ₀. They both, however, become progressively resistant to the glucose effect as the time lapse between t ₀ and the addition of glucose increases. ScoC and catA strains behave similarly except that this resistance appears earlier than in the wild type. Late addition of glucose or casamino acids was found to stimulate protease synthesis. These results indicate the existence of a complex system of regulation where glucose has multiple effects depending on the time of its addition. Some of these effects of glucose are common to both sporulation and the synthesis of associated proteins while others concern the alkaline protease alone or the alkaline and neutral proteases.