Initiation of deoxyribonucleic acid replication in germinating spores of Bacillus subtilis 168 carrying the dnaB (Ts)134 mutation.

The nature of the deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis reported by others to occur at 45 degrees C in germinating spores of the temperature-sensitive deoxyribonucleic acid initiation mutant of Bacillus subtilis 168, TsB134, has been investigated. Density transfer experiments, using 5-bromouracil, show that a normal round of replication can occur in a significant fraction of the spore population under such conditions. No repair synthesis is detectable. The possibility raised by this finding, that initiation of the first round of replication during spore outgrowth is unique in that its initiation is determined prior to germination, has been investigated by comparing the behavior of germinating spores of isogenic strains of B. subtilis 168, one carrying and the other without the dnaB (Ts)134 mutation. It is shown that deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in the Ts strain is very sensitive to temperature in the vicinity of 45 degrees C. At a slightly higher temperature, 49 degrees C, initiation of the first round of replication in the Ts strain is completely (greater than 96%) blocked, but it proceeds normally in the Ts(+) strain. Thus, it is concluded that, after the germination of a spore, the action of the dnaB134 gene product is an obligatory requirement for initiation of the first round of replication. The initiation of replication that can occur in spores of the original TsB134 strain germinating at 45 degrees C is presumably due to incomplete inactivation of the dnaB134 gene product under such conditions.