Cloning of the gene for C protein, a low molecular weight spore-specific protein from Bacillus megaterium.

The structural gene for C protein, a low molecular weight spore-specific protein from Bacillus megaterium, has been cloned in Escherichia coli. Expression of the C-protein gene in E. coli requires an external transcription promoter and prevention of termination of transcription prior to transcription of all or part of the sequence coding for the C protein. The gene for the C protein is within a 5-kilobase DNA fragment, but this fragment does not code for either of the other two major low molecular weight spore proteins, suggesting that the structural genes for these proteins are not tightly linked.