Early sporulation gene spo0F: nucleotide sequence and analysis of gene product.

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Abstract
The sequence of a 1162 base pair DNA fragment containing a spoOF gene which is required for an early stage of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis was determined. The sequence has only 1 long open reading frame consisting of 173 codons, which has been confirmed to be the spoOF cistron by DNA-mediated transformation and in vitro transcription. In UV-irradiated maxicells containing plasmid pUBSF13, the plasmid that carries cloned spoOF gene, the synthesis of a 20-kilodalton polypeptide that is absent from cells carrying a vector plasmid pUB110 was observed. The MW of this protein is in agreement with the calculated MW of the spoOF gene product (MW 19,065). The putative promoter sequences of spoOF gene were 5'' T-A-T-A-A-T 3'' at -10 and 5'' T-T-G-A-T-T 3'' at -35. An octamer sequence, 5'' A-A-A-G-G-A-G-G 3'', situated 8 base pairs prior prior to the initiation codon was perfectly complementary with the 3'' end of 16S rRNA. This result offers additional evidence for the proposal by Rabinowitz''s group that an extensive mRNA-rRNA interaction is a requirement for efficient translation by B. subtilis ribosomes.