Summary
A temperature-sensitive EFG mutant of Bacillus subtilis was isolated and characterized. This mutant, ts32, synthesizes stable RNA at 48° C with or at 50° C without accompanied protein synthesis. The initial rate of the RNA synthesis at 48° C or 50° C was 1.5 to 2.0 times as much as that at 30° C.
This mutant as well as its parent (both leu -) showed stringent response for the RNA synthesis upon deprivation of amino acids with an accumulation of the MS nucleotides (pp Gpp and pppGpp). On raising temperature to 48° C or 50° C, the ts-cells immediately began to synthesize the stable RNA with an initial increase of the MS nucleotides. No drastic decrease in amount of the MS was observed during the active RNA synthesis.
These results suggest that EFG is somehow involved in repressing the stable RNA synthesis, and have broken the close relationship between the stable RNA synthesis and the MS nucleotides hitherto reported.
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Communicated by H. G. Wittmann
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Kimura, A., Muto, A. & Osawa, S. Control of stable RNA synthesis in a temperature-sensitive mutant of elongation factor G of Bacillus subtilis . Molec. Gen. Genet. 130, 203–214 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268800
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268800