Elongation Factor P Is Important for Sporulation Initiation

The universally conserved protein elongation factor P (EF-P) facilitates translation at amino acids that form peptide bonds with low efficiency, particularly polyproline tracts. Despite its wide conservation, it is not essential in most bacteria and its physiological role remains unclear. Here, we show that EF-P affects the process of sporulation initiation in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. We observe that the lack of EF-P delays expression of sporulation-specific genes. Using ribosome profiling, we observe that expression of spo0A, encoding a transcription factor that functions as the master regulator of sporulation, is lower in a Defp strain than the wild type. Ectopic expression of Spo0A rescues the sporulation initiation phenotype, indicating that reduced spo0A expression explains the sporulation defect in Defp cells. Since Spo0A is the earliest sporulation transcription factor, these data suggest that sporulation initiation can be delayed when protein synthesis is impaired.