Gene expression during Bacillus subtilis spore germination and outgrowth (t=0-100)

Bacillus subtilis forms dormant spores upon nutrient depletion. Under favorable environmental conditions, the spore breaks its dormancy and resumes growth in a process called spore germination and outgrowth. To elucidate the physiological processes that occur during the transition of the dormant spore to an actively growing vegetative cell, we studied this process in a time-dependent manner by a combination of microscopy, analysis of extracellular metabolites and a genome-wide analysis of transcription. The results indicate the presence of abundant levels of late sporulation transcripts in dormant spores. In addition, results suggest the existence of a complex and well-regulated spore outgrowth program, involving the temporal expression of at least 30 % of the B. subtilis genome. Keywords: time course, spore outgrowth Time series of outgrowing B subtilis spores (cy-3) with common reference (RNA vegetative cells, TSB OD 0.4, Cy-5). Quality of the spotted oligoarray allows single dye dataanalysis.