Specificity of translation of spore polypeptides in bacillus in vitro systems.

Cell free extracts prepared from exponentially growing Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus as well as from Bacillus cereus at the end of exponential growth were optimized for various factors required for amino acid incorporation when programmed with Bacillus ribonucleic acid. All three preparations synthesized glutamine synthetase antigen when ribonucleic acid from a Bacillus subtilis strain that overproduces glutamine synthetase was added. The post exponential Bacillus cereus extract, however, was most active for the synthesis of Bacillus cereus sport coat antigen when supplemented with the appropriate ribonucleic acid. There appears to be some specificity in the translation of at least this sporulation messenger RNA.