The condition-dependent transcriptome of Bacillus subtilis 168

Recent studies revealed the unsuspected complexity of the bacterial transcriptome but its systematic analysis across many diverse conditions remains a challenge. Here we report the condition-dependent transcriptome of the prototype strain B. subtilis 168 across 104 conditions reflecting the bacterium's life-styles. This data set composed of 269 tiling array hybridizations allowed to observe ~85% of the annotated CDSs expressed in the higher 30% in at least one hybridization and thus provide an excellent coverage of the transcriptome of this bacterium. In addition to the Genbank annotation 1583 new segments of the chromosome were identified as transcribed and have transcription levels reported in the data matrix. RNA samples prepared from B. subtilis 168 grown under 104 experimental conditions were reverse transcribed, labeled and hybridized to tiling arrays. Most hybridizations were performed in duplicate or triplicate using RNA isolated from independent cultures. All experiments were performed with strain BSB1 which is a tryptophan-prototrophic (trp+) derivative of the 168 trpC2 strain.