PMID:12817086

Citation	González-Pastor, JE, Hobbs, EC and Losick, R (2003) Cannibalism by sporulating bacteria. Science 301:510-3
Abstract	Spore formation by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis is an elaborate developmental process that is triggered by nutrient limitation. Here we report that cells that have entered the pathway to sporulate produce and export a killing factor and a signaling protein that act cooperatively to block sister cells from sporulating and to cause them to lyse. The sporulating cells feed on the nutrients thereby released, which allows them to keep growing rather than to complete morphogenesis. We propose that sporulation is a stress-response pathway of last resort and that B. subtilis delays a commitment to spore formation by cannibalizing its siblings.
Links	PubMed Online version:10.1126/science.1086462
Keywords	Adenosine Triphosphate/metabolism; Bacillus subtilis/genetics; Bacillus subtilis/metabolism; Bacillus subtilis/physiology; Bacterial Proteins/genetics; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism; Bacteriolysis; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Genes, Bacterial; Mutation; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Operon; Sigma Factor/genetics; Sigma Factor/metabolism; Signal Transduction; Spores, Bacterial/physiology; Transcription Factors/genetics; Transcription Factors/metabolism; Transcription, Genetic
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Significance

Gene product	Qualifier	GO Term	Evidence Code	with/from	Aspect	Extension	Notes	Status
BACSU:SKFA		GO:0043934: sporulation	ECO:0000315:		P		In Figure 1C there is a graph that shows the amount of sporulation over time. The wild type that has a normal Skf gene shows a low amount of sporulation compared to the mutant Skf gene that shows a much larger amount of sporulation.	complete CACAO 12544

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