# ROLE OF RNA POLYMERASE IN BACTERIAL DIFFERENTIATION

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 1987 · $141,769

## Abstract

As the bacterium Bacillus subtilis differentiates from the vegetative form
into a dormant endospore, complex morphological and physiological changes
occur which require the sequential expression of many genes.  During the
process, new RNA polymerase sigma subunits appears, displacing one another
in a sequential cascade and conferring on the RNA polymerase a changing
specificity for the recognition of different classes of promoters. This
mechanism of altering transcriptional specificity may be a fundamental
element in the regulation of sporulation gene expression.

Experiments are proposed to determine how sigma factors work to change the
specificity for the recognition of promoters by RNA polymerase and to
determine how expression of a sporulation-induced sigma is regulated.
Additional experiments are proposed to characterize a recently discovered
non-sigma regulatory factor and to determine the signals that control the
compartmentalization of gene expression.

These studies are directly relevant to understanding the regulation of
differentiation and secondary metabolism in a broad range of bacteria.
Furthermore, the biochemical principles that enable a protein to direct RNA
polymerase to specific sites on DNA are probably relevant to RNA
polymerases in all organisms.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3129887
- **Project number:** 5R01AI020319-05
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** S352L5PJLMP8
- **Principal Investigator:** Charles P. Moran
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $141,769
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1983-07-01 → 1991-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3129887

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3129887, ROLE OF RNA POLYMERASE IN BACTERIAL DIFFERENTIATION (5R01AI020319-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3129887. Licensed CC0.

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