Bacteriophage PMB12 conversion of the sporulation defect in RNA polymerase mutants of Bacillus subtilis

Abstract

The pseudotemperate phage PMB12 was isolated from soil on the basis of its ability to enhance the rate of sporulation of Bacillus subtilis 168. PMB12 was subsequently shown to convert the sporulation defect in two genetically distinct classes of sporulation mutants. One class includes those rifampin-resistant mutants that are also spore-negative (mutated at the rif locus). The other class includes a strain carrying the sporulation mutation spoCM-1. The spoCM-1 mutation is linked to cysA15 by PBS1 transduction but is distinct from the rif locus. Several other sporulation mutants were not converted by PMB12. PMB12 is related to phage PBS1. However, PBS1 did not convert the above sporulation mutants. The replication of PBS2, a clear-plaquing derivative of PBS1, is rifampin insensitive, apparently due to a phage-induced rifampin-insensitive RNA polymerase. PMB12 replication is also rifampin insensitive.