Post-transcriptional regulation of the Bacillus subtilis pst operon encoding a phosphate-specific ABC transporter

Abstract

During phosphate starvation,Bacillus subtilisregulates genes in the PhoP regulon to reduce the cell's requirement for this essential substrate and to facilitate the recovery of inorganic phosphate from organic sources such as teichoic and nucleic acids. Among the proteins that are highly induced under these conditions is PstS, the phosphate-binding lipoprotein component of a high-affinity ABC-type phosphate transporter. PstS is encoded by the first gene in thepstoperon, the other four members of which encode the integral membrane and cytoplasmic components of the transporter. The transcription of thepstoperon was analysed using a combination of methods, including transcriptional reporter gene technology, Northern blotting and DNA arrays. It is shown that the primary transcript of thepstoperon is processed differentially to maintain higher concentrations of PstS relative to other components of the transporter. The comparative studies have revealed limitations in the use of reporter gene technology for analysing the transcription of operons in which the messenger RNA transcript is differentially processed.