The mechanism of cell differentiation in Bacillus subtilis

Dagmar Iber (), Joanna Clarkson, Michael D. Yudkin () and Iain D. Campbell
Additional contact information
Dagmar Iber: Mathematical Institute, Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Oxford
Joanna Clarkson: University of Oxford
Michael D. Yudkin: University of Oxford
Iain D. Campbell: University of Oxford

Nature, 2006, vol. 441, issue 7091, 371-374

Abstract: Genes that speak volumes A key question in developmental biology is how cells containing identical genomes follow different patterns of gene expression. This is reduced to its basics in Bacillus subtilis bacteria. During sporulation, brought on by nutritional stress, B. subtilis divides internally into two compartments destined for different fates. A transcription factor called σF is a key player in the process, and it and the regulators that control it have been studied extensively. The details of how differential gene activation is initiated remain hazy, however. Now a mathematical model that reproduces the in vitro experimental results has been developed. The model identifies the primary trigger for cell fate as the change in the volume ratio between the two cell types, which leads to a change in activity of a key phosphatase (SpoIIE) in one of them.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04666 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:441:y:2006:i:7091:d:10.1038_nature04666

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04666

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().