Bacterial spore formation is a primitive system of cellular differentiation. A systematic study is proposed aimed at identifying and investigating the roles of essential vegetative genes that are needed during spore formation, and at integrating information about essential genes with our knowledge of spo genes in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The study will focus on spoIIA, which codes for an RNA polymerase sigma factor, and genes that are likely to be involved in spore septum formation. It is proposed to search for essential genes that are directly or indirectly under the control of spoIIA, and to extend the search to include essential genes under the control of spoOH, which is associated with the start of sporulation. The Controls of two vegetative division genes, ftsA and ftsZ, will be analyzed as likely prototypes of essential genes that are needed during sporulation.
