%0 Journal Article %A Podlesek, Zdravko %A Grabnar, Miklavz %T Sporulation of a Bacitracin-sensitive Mutant of Bacillus licheniformis Is Self-inhibited by Bacitracin %D 1989 %J Microbiology, %V 135 %N 11 %P 2813-2818 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-135-11-2813 %I Microbiology Society, %X A mutant of Bacillus licheniformis (BLU166) sensitive to its own antibiotic bacitracin was isolated and the mutation ber-1 was mapped close to the bacitracin synthetase genes. The sensitivity was shown to be specific for bacitracin. Two further bacitracin-sensitive strains were constructed, one (BLU171) with normal ability to synthesize bacitracin, and one (BLU170) a bacitracin non-producer. In addition to an increased sensitivity of growing cells to bacitracin, sporulation of the mutant strain BLU171 was self-inhibited by bacitracin. It is concluded that (1) there might exist at least two levels of resistance to bacitracin; (2) mutation ber-1 affects a ‘structural’ component, which may protect the sensitive reaction of cell-wall biosynthesis; (3) sporulation is affected to a greater extent by bacitracin than vegetative growth; and (4) synthesis of bacitracin is independent of the presence of this resistance mechanism since the sensitive mutant produces similar amounts of the antibiotic to the wild-type strain. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-135-11-2813