From regulation to ruin: a rogue sigma factor causes cell death in Bacillus subtilis.

ABSTRACT

A rogue, plasmid-encoded sigma factor that kills Bacillus subtilis is the focus of a new study by A. T. Burton, D. Pospísilová, P. Sudzinová, E. V. Snider, A. M. Burrage, L. Krásný, and D. B. Kearns (J Bacteriol 205e00112-23, 2023, https//doi.org/10.1128/jb.00112-23). The authors demonstrate that SigN is toxic in its own right, causing cell death by potently outcompeting the housekeeping sigma factor for access to RNA polymerase.