Analysis of sporulation mutants. I. Response of uracil incorporation to carbon sources, and other mutant properties.

Mutants deficient in sporulation were isolated and characterized with respect to antibiotic and protease activity, transformability, growth, and sporulation. All but two mutants could grow on minimal medium containing glucose. The inability of most mutants to incorporate uracil into trichloroacetic acid-precipitable material (ribonucleic acid) during the developmental period, and their response to a number of carbon sources, were used to characterize their biochemical blocks. Reproducible measurements of these responses were possible when the pH of the culture, which changed during growth and greatly influenced the rate of uracil uptake, was adjusted to 6.5. By their response to ribose and glutamate, the sporulation mutants could then be divided into four groups. All mutants of the first three groups produced antibiotic activity against Staphylococcus aureus, whereas all mutants, except one, of the fourth group produced none or very little of this activity. Mutants which did not respond to glutamate belonged to the first three groups; they also grew slowly or not at all on glutamate as sole carbon source. One of these mutants lacked succinic dehydrogenase activity. The results indicate that most of our sporulation mutants are unable to produce or utilize a natural carbon precursor, which is normally used as a slowly available carbon and energy source via the Krebs cycle when other carbon sources are used up. It enters the Krebs cycle as a precursor of alpha-ketoglutarate, probably via acetylcoenzyme A. All mutants of group four are blocked in this pathway before alpha-ketoglutarate.